{"id":38401,"date":"2026-08-17T10:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/38401\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:52:18","slug":"londoners-could-soon-have-a-new-train-to-paris-brussels-and-amsterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/38401\/","title":{"rendered":"Londoners could soon have a new train to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Londoners could soon have a new way to travel by train to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam after Virgin Trains was granted track access to launch Channel Tunnel services from 2030.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This move puts Sir Richard Branson&#8217;s company in direct competition with Eurostar, which has operated a passenger service monopoly through the tunnel since 1994, and opens the door for up to 20 new daily return journeys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has approved Virgin Trains&#8217; application to operate international routes <a data-ylk=\"slk:between London;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.london-now.co.uk\/news\/26459337.hidden-victorian-cemetery-gothic-ruins-south-east-london\/?ref=ed_recent\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">between London<\/a> and the three continental cities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Martin Jones, deputy director of access and international at the ORR, said: &#8220;This is an important next step in bringing competition and growth to the market for international rail services, and we welcome the progress Virgin Trains and <a data-ylk=\"slk:London;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.london-now.co.uk\/news\/26464557.often-borough-market-opens-closest-tube-station\/?ref=ed_recent\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">London<\/a> St Pancras High Speed have made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;While there is still more work to do, we are supporting Virgin and the wider industry to grow international services.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">READ MORE:<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The approval covers a 10-year period from October 1, 2030, to December 31, 2040, and marks another regulatory milestone for Virgin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Last October, the company was granted access to Eurostar&#8217;s Temple Mills depot in east London for train storage and maintenance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sir Richard Branson previously said it was &#8220;time to end this 30-year monopoly and bring some Virgin magic to the cross-Channel route.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Virgin intends to operate services between London St Pancras and the same stations served by Eurostar in Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The ORR emphasised that while the decision is significant, further steps remain before operations can begin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Virgin Trains must still secure access to other rail networks along the route and obtain safety approvals from both UK and EU regulators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The proposed services would run on High Speed 1, the line that runs between London and the tunnel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Temple Mills is the only depot that can be accessed from High Speed 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Londoners could soon have a new way to travel by train to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam after Virgin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23,698,25030,25032,700,25031,25033,25029,25028],"class_list":["post-38401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-amsterdam","tag-amsterdam","tag-brussels","tag-channel-tunnel","tag-direct-competition","tag-eurostar","tag-martin-jones","tag-orr","tag-sir-richard-branson","tag-virgin-trains"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}