The railway companies Eurostar, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and the French state railway SNCF Voyageurs have signed an agreement in principle to explore the introduction of direct high-speed rail links between London and several Swiss cities.
This cooperation follows an agreement concluded in March 2026 between SBB and SNCF to strengthen cross-border rail transport. The partners aim to complement air travel on this heavily frequented route with a high-performance rail alternative. Currently, London is the most frequently served destination from Swiss airports, which, according to the participating railway companies’ market assessment, indicates significant potential for rail transport.
The technical plans envision ambitious travel times: Basel should be reachable from London in around five hours, Geneva in approximately five and a half hours, and the economic metropolis of Zurich in six hours. The project draws on the partners’ decades of experience in international high-speed rail. While Eurostar contributes its expertise in operating through the Channel Tunnel, SBB and SNCF have an established partnership in transport between France and Switzerland. The initiative is further supported by a memorandum of understanding between the UK and Swiss governments from 2025, which aims to simplify the legal and regulatory framework for such direct connections.
Despite strategic agreement, significant operational and infrastructural obstacles stand in the way of implementation. The next phase of the study focuses on analyzing timetables and securing track access rights on the French rail network and in the Channel Tunnel. A critical issue is the necessary border controls, which, due to the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU and Switzerland’s non-membership in the EU customs territory, require complex logistical solutions at railway stations. Furthermore, the availability of specialized multi-system trains must be clarified, and international agreements on technical interoperability must be finalized.
Due to these complex requirements, the operators are tempering expectations for a timely implementation. A start of regular service before the beginning of the 2030s is considered unlikely. In addition to operational issues, capacity bottlenecks at the destination stations in Switzerland and London’s St. Pancras International station must also be resolved to handle the additional passenger flows. Nevertheless, market observers interpret the agreement as a clear signal for the further consolidation of the European long-distance rail market, in which national railway companies are increasingly relying on cross-border alliances to strengthen their competitiveness against air travel.