Eurostar
High-speed train service in Western Europe
Follow Eurostar on Notably News to receive short updates to your email — rarely!
We include updates on Channel Tunnel, TGV, St Pancras railway station, High Speed 1, SNCF, Gare du Nord, British Rail Class 373, British Rail Class 374, Amsterdam Centraal station, National Railway Company of Belgium, Ashford International railway station, Marne-la-Vallée–Chessy station, Brussels-South railway station, Ebbsfleet International railway station, Rotterdam Centraal station, LGV Nord ... and more.
| 2025 |
High Speed 1
Evolyn plans to order 12 trains from Alstom, contingent on securing project financing and regulatory approval.
|
| April 2025 |
High Speed 1
Gemini Trains announced plans to operate trains across the Eurotunnel and applied for access to the Temple Mills Depot.
|
| 2025 |
High Speed 1
Evolyn initially planned to start non-stop services between London and Paris
|
| February 2025 |
High Speed 1
HS1 Ltd. begins trading under the new name London St. Pancras Highspeed, aiming to take a more consumer-facing approach and explore options for expanding capacity at London St. Pancras International railway station.
|
| February 9 2025 | Planned reopening of juxtaposed controls buildings at Amsterdam Centraal and Rotterdam Centraal stations. |
| 2024 | Continued decline in truck transportation to 1,198,052, with 1,233 freight trains. |
| 2024 | Transport reached 11,201,093 passengers, with 2,187,146 shuttle service passenger vehicles, approaching pre-pandemic levels. |
| 2024 | NMBS/SNCB increased passenger numbers to 245 million, demonstrating significant growth in rail transportation over 16 years. |
| 2024 | The National Railway Company of Belgium increased its passenger volume to 245 million passengers, marking significant growth in rail transportation. |
| November 2024 |
High Speed 1
Virgin Group and Evolyn highlight Eurostar's non-agreement for Temple Mills depot access during an industry event at the Houses of Parliament, subsequently appealing to the ORR to assess available capacity.
|
| September 2024 | Eurostar signed a memorandum of understanding to join SkyTeam as its first non-airline partner, establishing a significant air-rail alliance to enable integrated intermodal transport across the UK, France, and the Netherlands. |
| June 15 2024 | Juxtaposed controls buildings at Amsterdam Centraal and Rotterdam Centraal were closed due to major track works, impacting direct Eurostar services. |
| May 2024 | Eurostar announced plans to order up to 50 new trains, signaling a significant expansion and modernization of its fleet. |
| January 2024 |
High Speed 1
Deutsche Bahn reaffirmed its fundamental interest in transport between London and the mainland through the Eurotunnel, while noting that routes and trains were not yet equipped with end-to-end ETCS.
|
| 2023 | Truck transportation decreased to 1,206,754, with 1,417 freight trains operating. |
| 2023 | Continued recovery with 10,716,419 passengers and 2,236,713 shuttle service passenger vehicles. |
| 2023 | Mobico Group, owner of National Express, was reported to be considering cross-Channel services under the name 'Evolyn'. |
| 2023 | Cycle booking service was critically described as 'farcical'. |
| December 2023 |
High Speed 1
Getlink announced plans to double the market for direct high-speed trains from the UK within 10 years, with potential services to Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva, and Zurich. The company aims to reduce time to market from 10 to 5 years through market research, tunnel regulation standardization, and collaboration with network operators.
|
| November 2023 |
High Speed 1
Dutch rail start-up Heuro, led by Maarten van den Biggelaar, announced plans to operate 16 daily services from Amsterdam to London and Paris, seeking €600 million in funding and planning to use Zefiro V300 trains.
|
| October 2023 | Multiple new companies expressed interest in running services through the Channel Tunnel: Evolyn (a Spanish start-up planning London-Paris services), Virgin Group exploring international service options, and Heuro (a Dutch start-up planning Amsterdam to Paris and London routes). |
| October 2023 | Eurostar brand officially replaced Thalys, operating as one unified network with combined ticket sales system. |
| 2022 | Passenger transport began recovering, with 8,295,005 passengers and 2,109,920 shuttle service passenger vehicles. |
| 2022 | Further reduction in freight volume to 864,058 tonnes, with a slight increase to 1,446,765 trucks and 1,488 freight trains. |
| 2022 | Getlink, the Channel Tunnel owner, considered purchasing trains to lease to rival operations. |
| 2022 | Eurostar discontinued services to Ashford International, Ebbsfleet International, Calais Frethun stations, and withdrew its Disneyland Paris and Avignon routes to focus on more profitable connections. |
| 2022 | Eurostar accumulated debts of €964 million following French bailouts and commercial loans. Passenger numbers recovered to 8 million, though still 3 million below 2019 levels. |
| November 2022 |
Nightstar
Generator van 96371 was transported to Inverness to be used as a carriage heater for Caledonian Sleeper.
|
| 2021 | Continued decline in freight volume to 1,041,140 tonnes, with 1,361,529 trucks transported and 1,654 freight trains. |
| 2021 | Renfe, Spain's national rail operator, proposed competing London to Paris rail services. |
| December 2021 |
Nightstar
Eastern Rail Services purchased the three remaining Generator Vans from Motorail, with 96372 moving to Great Yarmouth.
|
| October 2021 | Renfe, the Spanish state railway company, expressed interest in operating a cross-Channel route between Paris and London. |
| October 2021 |
High Speed 1
Renfe officially announced its intention to operate high-speed trains between Paris and London using the Channel Tunnel and High Speed 1, with the company believing such routes would be viable and profitable.
|
| October 2021 | Announcement made that after merger completion, the Thalys brand would be discontinued, with all services to be operated under the Eurostar name but maintaining individual service liveries. |
| August 31 2021 | The ElecLink interconnector, a 51 km-long 320 kV DC power cable running through the Channel Tunnel, was switched into service during the night, enabling power transfer between British and French electricity networks. |
| January 2021 | Eurostar ridership dropped to less than 1% of pre-pandemic levels, prompting the company to seek governmental financial assistance from Britain's Treasury and Department for Transport. |
| 2020 |
Nightstar
Generator van 96371 moved to Polmadie TRSMD to be used as a carriage heater with the Caledonian Sleeper.
|
| 2020 | Significant drop in passenger and vehicle transport due to COVID-19 pandemic, with only 2,503,419 passengers and 1,399,051 shuttle service passenger vehicles. |
| 2020 | Freight transportation declined to 1,138,213 tonnes, possibly due to global pandemic, with 1,451,556 trucks and 1,736 freight trains. |
| 2020 |
High Speed 1
Eurostar services to Ashford International station were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
|
| 2020 | Partnered with the Woodland Trust, ReforestAction, and Trees for All to plant 20,000 trees annually in woodlands across the UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands. |
| 2020 | Received Mobile Industry Awards' Distributor of the Year. |
| October 26 2020 | Juxtaposed controls buildings were constructed and opened at Amsterdam Centraal and Rotterdam Centraal stations for Eurostar services. |
| October 26 2020 | Amsterdam service converted to a full return service between London and Amsterdam. |
| September 2020 | The merger between Thalys and Eurostar International was confirmed, pending European Commission clearance. |
| August 2020 |
Nightstar
Eastern Rail Services purchased generator van 96374 from Wabtec, which was relocated to Great Yarmouth for use as a carriage heater for Mk2 and Mk3 fleets, and repainted into Intercity livery.
|
| July 7 2020 | A modified tripartite agreement was signed in Brussels, including the Netherlands in the previous border control arrangement, allowing juxtaposed controls in Amsterdam and Rotterdam similar to those in Brussels and Paris. |
| April 30 2020 | Direct Eurostar service from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to London started after building check-in terminals and reaching an intergovernmental agreement. |
|
We are only showing the most recent entries for this topic. |
|
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles National Railway Company of Belgium, Channel Tunnel, Eurostar, Nightstar (train) & High Speed 1, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.