Evolyn - A New Operator For the Chunnel?

[Jozhua]

(Feel free to move to International Transport if more suitable location - Eurostar does run in the UK though!)

Regarding this article: https://www.euronews.com/travel/202...-mystery-investors-coming-for-eurostars-crown

Eurostar rival Evolyn is expected to run its first trains in 2025.

The high-speed rail startup is gearing up to launch a cross-Channel service from London to Paris.

On Wednesday, Evolyn said it agreed to purchase 12 trains from French multinational rolling stock manufacturer Alstom. This could be expanded to 16 trains, Evolyn added in a statement.

It will be interesting to see how this develops.

In my opinion, Eurostar currently seems to be sliding backwards in terms of service offerings and also charges rather high prices. Of course, a lack of political will on both sides of the channel seems to be a barrier too.

The Chunnel runs at about 50% capacity presently - I would love to visit Paris/Amsterdam by train, but the barriers to me doing so are primarily cost. As I have to get a domestic train to London, I either have to pay peak prices on the London bound train, or on the Eurostar, or both, so costs compound really quickly.

The new operator may also have more scope to negotiate track access fees for HS1, Chunnel and French HSR lines - potentially this could also help Eurostar in negotiating better rates.

Either way, demand is high and the infrastructure exists to fulfill it (which seems like a rarity in the UK these days), so probably a good place for an open access operator to jump in!

 

[hello]

(Feel free to move to International Transport if more suitable location - Eurostar does run in the UK though!)

Regarding this article: https://www.euronews.com/travel/202...-mystery-investors-coming-for-eurostars-crown


It will be interesting to see how this develops.

In my opinion, Eurostar currently seems to be sliding backwards in terms of service offerings and also charges rather high prices. Of course, a lack of political will on both sides of the channel seems to be a barrier too.

The Chunnel runs at about 50% capacity presently - I would love to visit Paris/Amsterdam by train, but the barriers to me doing so are primarily cost. As I have to get a domestic train to London, I either have to pay peak prices on the London bound train, or on the Eurostar, or both, so costs compound really quickly.

The new operator may also have more scope to negotiate track access fees for HS1, Chunnel and French HSR lines - potentially this could also help Eurostar in negotiating better rates.

Either way, demand is high and the infrastructure exists to fulfill it (which seems like a rarity in the UK these days), so probably a good place for an open access operator to jump in!

I thought there was a special type of ticket for use in the U.K. that you could get if you had an onward international ticket from St Pancras international, similar to rail sail

 

[John R]

Isn’t the current issue capacity at the immigration facilities? How will Evolyn address that, as I presume it will need a big increase in overall traffic across the two operators to be a success (unless it is purely abstractive of Eurostar sales).

 

[gordonthemoron]

Isn’t the current issue capacity at the immigration facilities? How will Evolyn address that, as I presume it will need a big increase in overall traffic across the two operators to be a success (unless it is purely abstractive of Eurostar sales).

Especially as Gare du Nord has even more cramped space than St Pancras

 

[PGAT]

Lovely to hear, Eurostar could really do with a kick up the butt.

 

[matt]

Discussed here https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/mobico-to-investigate-cross-channel-rail-services.252237/unread