{"id":688848,"date":"2026-01-11T12:03:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/688848\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T12:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:03:25","slug":"a-third-rail-company-has-unveiled-plans-for-direct-trains-between-the-uk-and-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/688848\/","title":{"rendered":"A Third Rail Company Has Unveiled Plans for Direct Trains Between the UK and Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Virgin Trains had big cause for celebration at the end of last year.\u00a0The operator beat a bunch of other bidders to be granted permission to store trains at the Temple Mills International depot. You know what that means? It\u2019s on track to become the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/uk\/news\/virgin-trains-will-compete-with-eurostar-through-the-channel-tunnel-heres-what-that-means-for-direct-trains-to-europe-from-kent-manchester-and-birmingham-103025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">very first rail operator to challenge Eurostar\u2019s 30-year monopoly of the Channel Tunnel<\/a>. But those celebrations may turn out to be short-lived, as there\u2019s now another rail operator that could beat Virgin to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Italy\u2019s state-owned railway Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS Group) was one of the operators that lost to Virgin over use of the Temple Mills depot.\u00a0However,\u00a0that defeat hasn\u2019t stopped it from\u00a0pursuing its cross-channel ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>Last week FS Group revealed that it would be partnering with a US private investment firm called Certares to develop a high-speed rail connection between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">London<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/paris\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paris<\/a> by 2029 with its Trenitalia France subsidiary. That\u2019s a year ahead of when Virgin plans to launch its cross-Channel services.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of storing its trains at Temple Mills, the group says that it\u2019ll build a new \u00a387 million facility just outside of Paris. The new space would store a fleet of 10 vehicles and eliminate the need to store trains in the UK. It\u00a0would\u00a0only require one train from the first morning departure from St Pancras to remain in Britain overnight. Right now, the tunnel is only operating at 50 percent capacity, so it could feasibly have room for Eurostar, Virgin and FS Group trains.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for FS Group said: \u2018The company intends to further expand its network with the addition of the Paris\u2013London route and the launch of additional cross-border services.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The partnership [with Certares] aims to position France, the Paris-London corridor and the future areas included in the joint venture as showcases for the future of sustainable European transport, for the benefit of French, UK and European customers.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><strong>ICYMI:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/uk\/news\/the-legendary-former-capital-city-with-a-game-changing-new-train-route-that-is-time-outs-best-place-to-visit-in-britain-in-2026-010826\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The legendary former capital city with a game-changing new train route that is Time Out\u2019s best place to visit in Britain in 2026<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Plus:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/uk\/news\/one-of-the-worlds-oldest-cities-is-getting-its-first-ever-direct-flights-from-the-uk-122925\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">One of the world\u2019s oldest cities is getting its first ever direct flights from the UK<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stay in the loop:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/uk\/newsletter?cid=uk~editorial~acquisition~newsletter~contentlink\" data-modified-href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/uk\/newsletter?cid=uk~editorial~acquisition~newsletter~contentlink\" data-modified- target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up to our free Time Out UK newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for the latest UK news and the best stuff happening across the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virgin Trains had big cause for celebration at the end of last year.\u00a0The operator beat a bunch of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[11648,2000,299,5187,11649,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-688848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-categories-travel","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-news-transport-travel","13":"tag-travel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115876371132534422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688848","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=688848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}