Two Swiss cities are hoping for direct rail routes to London, but there’s no definite motion on that yet aside from an ongoing Swiss parliamentary study, originally meant for a route to Basel. Now Geneva also wants in, either in addition to or instead of a Basel link, but it’s far from certain to happen any time soon.
At present, travel between the two cities requires a Eurostar train from London to Paris or Brussels, and another train from there; in the case of the Paris connection, it also requires a cross-town jaunt from one station to another.
A direct route to Switzerland would involve an extended Eurostar route, and would require re-building customs and border facilities at the Swiss stations, since the UK is no longer part of the EU’s common borders. Facilities exist, but they are small, remnants of the days when they were needed for connections between France and Switzerland.
Advocates of the rail connections point out that at present there are 45 flights a day between London and Geneva and a smaller but significant number to Basel that could be eliminated by a faster rail link.
Meanwhile, Basel is losing one of its long-standing rail services with the July 15 termination of a daily Amsterdam to Basel train that is being withdrawn ostensibly for maintenance work, but with no plans to resume. The train is operated by DB, the German rail operator
