It’s finally happening: Eurostar’s three-decade monopoly over the Channel Tunnel is about to come to an end.
Eurostar, a French-controlled international rail operator, is the only company providing direct passenger services from London to cities such as Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris through the tunnel.
From 2029, though, that could change.
Several train operators across the UK and Europe have been locked in a battle to be the first to compete with the cross-Channel service.
As it stands, it looks as though Italy’s state-owned railway company will come out on top. But it’s all to play for. Let’s look at the contenders.
FS Group
Italy’s state-owned railway — Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS Group) — is currently winning the race to launch its own London to Paris route by 2029.
First, it found a way around using train storage facilities in the UK (which has historically been a major stumbling block).
And now, it’s submitted a £1.7 billion order for vehicles: 19 high-speed trains, to be exact.
Those trains will be the core fleet for the group’s London to Paris route, scheduled to launch in 2029.
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They see it becoming the ‘Metro of Europe’, which sounds pretty good to us.
Virgin
Next, we have Virgin Trains. Richard Branson’s rail company is aiming to launch its own service in 2030.
Last week, it moved closer to that goal with the granting of track access by the rail regulator to enable it to run services between London and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
Virgin has cleared a big regulatory hurdle with this, but there’s a catch.
The access only covers the HS1 route, and Virgin still needs to secure the same for the Channel Tunnel and rail networks in mainland Europe.
Promising to sprinkle some Virgin magic, Branson has previously declared: ‘We’re going to shake-up the cross-Channel route for good and give consumers the choice they deserve’.
Gemini Trains
In December 2025, we reported that Eurostar had plans to launch high-speed rail routes between London and Germany.
If all goes to plan, we could see Eurostar trains pulling into Cologne and Frankfurt by the early 2030s.
But Eurostar is not the only one with these big plans.
Gemini Trains is hoping to launch rival services to Cologne as early as 2030, and to Paris and Brussels after that.
The company, chaired by Lord Berkeley, 85, a veteran railway engineer and Labour minister, has said they will deliver 10 high-speed trains for services to Europe.
Evolyn
Evolyn promised a new service from London to Paris back in 2023.
The Spanish start-up bought 12 trains from French manufacturer Alstom for its new high-speed route, and promised to launch direct services by 2026.
There was also talk of extending routes to Germany and Switzerland, but there hasn’t been much on any of that since.
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