{"id":64395,"date":"2026-05-12T23:48:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/64395\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:48:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:48:33","slug":"new-eurostar-service-could-directly-connect-uk-and-european-country-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/64395\/","title":{"rendered":"New Eurostar service could directly connect UK and European country for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Eurostar<\/a> agreement could mean that direct trains<\/a> run from London<\/a> to Switzerland<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n

Eurostar, SBB and SNCF Voyageurs have signed a \u201cmemorandum of understanding\u201d to establish the potential direct connection between the two destinations.<\/p>\n

In March, Swiss rail company SBB and French rail service SNCF Voyageurs<\/a> reached an agreement with the aim of developing new rail routes.<\/p>\n

Eurostar said: \u201cThis marks an important milestone in the long-term planning for the establishment of a potential new direct connection to the United Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

It added that London is the No 1 flight destination from Switzerland<\/a>, with \u201cstrong customer demand for a direct rail connection\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rail connection between London and Switzerland would \u201cnecessarily\u201d run through France.<\/p>\n

Journeys from London to Zurich would typically take around six hours, while connections to Geneva would be half an hour shorter.<\/p>\n

Train travellers between the UK and Switzerland can currently take the Eurostar to Paris then switch to a TGV Lyria train to Zurich, a total journey of just under seven and a half hours.<\/p>\n

Eurostar has been operating cross-Channel connections for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n

Entry formalities, necessary infrastructure changes and intergovernmental agreements will need to be confirmed before the project moves forward.<\/p>\n

According to Eurostar, the project would be feasible \u201cat the earliest sometime in the course of the 2030s\u201d.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Prague<\/a> and Copenhagen<\/a> were connected by rail for the first time in more than 1<\/a>0 years<\/a> when a new service launched between the two capitals.<\/p>\n

The Prague-Copenhagen link started on 1 May, run by Czech Railways.<\/p>\n

Due to track closures in Germany, the service has started by running only two trains per day that are temporarily following a detour between Berlin and Hamburg, making the journey slightly longer.<\/p>\n

For the next few weeks, the service will leave Prague Main Station at 6.31am, arriving in Copenhagen at 7.38pm.<\/p>\n

A service will also run from the Danish capital at 8.22am, arriving in Prague at 9.25pm.<\/p>\n

Read more: West Coast Main Line fares to fall when Lumo\u2019s new London trains start this month<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Eurostar agreement could mean that direct trains run from London to Switzerland for the first time.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[35156,16555,996,35159,35157,35158,34909,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-64395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-direct-connection","9":"tag-eurostar","10":"tag-london","11":"tag-rail-company","12":"tag-rail-connection","13":"tag-rail-service","14":"tag-sncf-voyageurs","15":"tag-switzerland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116564282881957980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}