Virgin Trains could launch London-to-Europe rail service by 2030, ending Eurostar’s 32-year monopoly and potentially lowering fares for travelers.

Travel between London and Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris could be cheaper in the next few years if Virgin Trains is successful in its bid to begin a new rail service to challenge the monopoly held by the current operator, Eurostar. 

Britain’s Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has approved Virgin’s request to run services between London’s St. Pancras Station and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel from 2030 to 2040. The approval isn’t the final hurdle; Virgin must still get approval from both the Channel Tunnel itself and the rail networks in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. 

If ultimately successful, Virgin’s bid would end the 32-year monopoly Eurostar has held on passenger rail service via the tunnel. Eurostar has been the only approved operator for passenger services through the tunnel since it opened in 1994 (another operator has the license to transport vehicles). Formerly owned by private British corporations and the British government, a majority stake was sold to the French rail operator SNCF. 

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Virgin Trains was a brand name used on a pair of rail networks in the U.K. until 2019. The company does not currently operate any rail services in the U.K. or Europe, but the introduction of a competitor to the monopoly Eurostar service is likely to have an impact on fares.

Virgin had planned to rebrand the Florida-based Brightline service as Virgin Trains in the United States in 2018, but Brightline canceled the deal in 2020 following the end of Virgin Trains services in the U.K. and the pandemic-related bankruptcy of Virgin Atlantic Airways. Brightline reasoned that Virgin had “ceased to constitute a brand of international high repute, largely because of matters related to the pandemic.” Virgin sued for damages and won $115 million from Brightline.

Eurostar currently operates from London St. Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord in two hours and 16 minutes. The service to Brussels-Midi takes an hour and 53 minutes, while the service to Amsterdam Centraal takes just over four hours. Other lines also operate to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, Marne-la-Vallee-Chessy for Disneyland Paris, and to Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Dortmund, Germany. 

Last year, Virgin was granted access to a rail depot currently used by Eurostar to maintain and store trains operating on the route between St. Pancras and the Channel Tunnel. 

A study from late 2024 found Eurostar to be one of the worst-performing rail services in Europe when compared by fare levels, on-time reliability, and ease of getting refunds. Eurostar disputed the results of that study.

Virgin has not yet acquired trainsets. Its previous U.K. rail services were operated under a licensing agreement. In October 2025, Virgin Group owner Richard Branson told Politico the company had plans to acquire 12 trainsets from the French rail manufacturer Alstom. Alstom manufactures much of the high-speed rail equipment for many operators, including France’s SNCF, Eurostar, Italy’s Trenitalia, and Amtrak’s new Next Gen Acela trains. It’s estimated Virgin’s journey times would be similar to Eurostar’s current services, but that depends on the rail access it’s ultimately able to secure for operations. 

Access to the Channel Tunnel is managed and operated by the company Getlink. A binational safety authority between France and the United Kingdom monitors safety and operational regulations inside the nearly 31-and-a-half-mile underground tunnel running beneath the waters of the English Channel. 

More than 18 million passengers traveled via the Channel Tunnel in 2024, roughly the same number that made the crossing by sea.