{"id":341490,"date":"2025-08-13T15:37:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/341490\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T15:37:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T15:37:33","slug":"berlin-london-set-up-task-force-to-figure-out-cross-border-rail-connection-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/341490\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin, London set up task force to figure out cross-border rail connection links"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<strong>The transport ministers of the UK and Germany agreed to launch a joint taskforce targeted at getting trains running between the two countries.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p>\nMeeting in Hamburg on Wednesday, UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander and her\u00a0 German counterpart Patrick Schnieder agreed to tackle the numerous operational, regulatory, and economic challenges that have derailed past attempts to launch\u00a0direct passenger services between the two countries &#8211; a dream rail enthusiasts feared was a train long departed, hopes having risen and fallen repeatedly over the past 15 years.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nDuring the meeting, Schnieder said both London and Berlin \u201care committed\u201d to enabling trains to cross the Channel in the coming years. \u201cA continuous connection would greatly simplify travel and significantly increase the appeal of train journeys,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1005\" data-end=\"1279\">Past efforts to get direct trains between London and Frankfurt have collapsed because of various challenges \u2013 from safety rules around access to the Channel Tunnel, to problems with passport controls on inbound services into the UK and trouble building security zones at major train stations across continental Europe.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1005\" data-end=\"1279\">In 2010, Deutsche Bahn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zeit.de\/reisen\/2010-10\/ice-london\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">showcased<\/a> its white-red ICE train at London St Pancras, aiming to start a London\u2013Cologne\u2013Frankfurt services by 2013. The state railway\u00a0secured a Channel Tunnel operating certificate but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/politics\/london-frankfurt-cologne-train-deutsche-bahn-db-eurostar-cancelled-shelved-a8394806.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shelved<\/a> the plan in 2018, citing economic trouble.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1281\" data-end=\"1614\">Currently, no direct Germany\u2013UK passenger trains operate. Eurostar \u2013 a subsidiary of France\u2019s SNCF and the Channel Tunnel\u2019s passenger monopoly \u2013 wants to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cded0zypxl7o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">introduce<\/a> services from Frankfurt and Geneva by the early 2030s.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1281\" data-end=\"1614\">The company intends to buy up to <a href=\"https:\/\/mediacentre.eurostar.com\/mc_view?language=&amp;article_Id=ka4Rz00000Frp0XIAR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">50 new trains<\/a> and grow annual passenger numbers from 19.5 million in 2024 to 30 million.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1616\" data-end=\"1789\">(jp)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The transport ministers of the UK and Germany agreed to launch a joint taskforce targeted at getting trains&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-341490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115022203782919285","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}