Eurostar Plans to Expand to Geneva and Frankfurt

High-speed train operator Eurostar has announced plans to run direct services between London and both Frankfurt and Geneva.

New Eurostar routes

In a press release issued today (10th of June 2025), Eurostar announced its intention to launch direct train services from London to both Frankfurt, Germany, and Geneva, Switzerland, by around 2030.

Eurostar also plans to start a new route linking Amsterdam and Brussels with Geneva.

Eurostar also announced that, it will introduce a fourth daily service between London and Amsterdam starting on 9th of September this year, with a fifth daily service to be added by mid-December.

Eurostar train at London St Pancras station. ©AndyBTravels

Fleet expansion

To achieve their expansion plans, Eurostar plans to introduce up to 50 new trains to its fleet starting in the early 2030s, enabling the operation of the new routes.

The railway company plans to invest approximately €2 billion in acquiring these new trains.

Eurostar CEO Gwendoline Cazenave said: “We’re seeing strong demand for train travel across Europe, with customers wanting to go further by rail than ever before and enjoy the unique experience we provide.

“Despite the challenging economic climate, Eurostar is growing and has bold ambitions for the future.

“Our new fleet will make new destinations for customers a reality – notably direct trains between London and Germany, and between London and Switzerland for the first time.

“A new golden age of international sustainable travel is here.”

Caveat

For Eurostar to operate a direct service between London and either Geneva or Frankfurt, these stations would need to be equipped with border control facilities and sterile platforms, allowing passengers travelling to London to exit the Schengen zone and enter the UK — just as is currently done at the Eurostar terminals in Paris Gare du Nord and Brussels-South.

I’ve previously outlined the practical issues surrounding Eurostar’s expansion plans, and unless these are addressed by the local authorities at the proposed new destinations, both the plans and their timeline should be taken with a pinch of salt.

One possible solution would be for passengers on UK-bound trains to disembark at Brussels or Lille to go through passport control and customs there, although that would hardly qualify as a truly direct service.

It would be quite similar to the current situation, where passengers take an ICE train from Frankfurt to Brussels or a TGV from Geneva to Paris, then connect to a London-bound Eurostar.

Competition

The irony of the Eurostar expansion plans and the announced new destinations is that they come shortly after Trenitalia revealed its intention to compete directly by launching its own cross-Channel high-speed trains between London, Brussels, and Paris — an ambition that is also shared independently by the start-up company Evolyn.

Eurostar even went so far as to claim that there is no capacity at the Temple Mills depot in London to accommodate other companies competing with them, which certainly contradicts their own plans to expand their fleet.

It seems that it has taken the threat of new entrants to shock the Eurostar monopoly into action!

Trenitalia is planning to compete with Eurostar on their routes between London, Paris, and Brussels. ©AndyBTravels

Conclusion

Eurostar plans to run direct train services between London and both Geneva and Frankfurt in the early 2030s.

Although Eurostar intends to acquire new trains to enable this route expansion, many challenges remain before it can become a reality.

These expansion plans should also be viewed in the context of potential new entrants to the market — such as Trenitalia — who may compete with Eurostar on cross-Channel routes between London and the European continent, as cracks begin to appear in Eurostar’s monopoly.