Virgin wins approval for cross-Channel trains despite Eurostar complaints

The UK’s rail regulator has thrown out objections from Eurostar that allowing Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group to operate Channel Tunnel services would cramp its own expansion plans.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has granted Virgin track access rights to the high-speed line linking London with the tunnel, bringing the prospect of competition on rail services to the continent a step closer.

Virgin wants to break Eurostar’s monopoly by offering passenger services to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from 2030. Last year, it received crucial access to the east London rail depot needed to maintain trains for the line.

Eurostar, which launched in 1994 and is owned by France’s state railway operator SNCF, had complained to the regulator that approving Virgin would not account for its own intention to expand services in the next decade.

It plans to spend €2bn on new trains, and says it wants to run services to Geneva and Frankfurt.

In its response to an ORR consultation on allowing Virgin access to the track, Eurostar had also questioned the capacity at St Pancras International, the terminal that both operators will use.

The regulator found that Eurostar’s expansion was only a “modest increase in capacity” compared with a new series of routes from Virgin. It also found no flaws in St Pancras’s own analysis of its capacity, which Eurostar has questioned.

The approval is “an important next step in bringing competition and growth to the market for international rail services”, said ORR deputy director Martin Jones.

Virgin said it welcomed the findings “and the opportunity to bring competition and Virgin’s award-winning customer experience to the Channel Tunnel”.

Details of Virgin’s planned services were included in the approval documents. These include six daily services to Paris in October 2030, rising to 10 in April 2031 and 13 from October that year. It aims to launch four daily services to Brussels in February 2031, and three to Amsterdam from October 2031.

Its plans do not include reopening Ebbsfleet or Ashford International, two Kent stations that had originally been part of the network.

The group still has to finalise its order for trains, which are being financed by infrastructure investor Equitix and private equity group Azzurra. It is also yet to gain approval for tunnel access and track rights on the European side of its potential routes. Talks on all three are well advanced, it said.

Jones from the ORR added: “While there is still more work to do, we are supporting Virgin and the wider industry to grow international services.”

Eurostar said the ORR’s approval “confirms the huge potential for growth in international rail and the ambition across the industry to bring more passengers to Europe by train”. The train operator said its focus “remains on delivering our own ambitious plans, investing in our fleet and carrying 30mn passengers a year”.

London St Pancras Highspeed, the company that owns the line and the station, said: “This is a significant milestone in opening up the next chapter of international high-speed rail. It paves the way for competition, more services, greater customer choice and new destinations, at a time when demand for international rail travel is set to grow significantly.”