Deutsche Bahn shelves plans for London service
Back to Forum- This topic has 5 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 19 Jun 2018
at 11:30 by Alex McWhirter.
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AMcWhirterParticipantDeutsche Bahn’s much anticipated plans for a London service have been shelved.
DB originally launched plans for London back in 2010. At that time it was hoped that there was a chance that services would start in time for the London 2012 Olympics.
But it was not to be. Business Traveller published many reports on the problems DB faced in getting its ICE trainsets approved by the Tunnel authorities.
In 2014 we reported that DB had postponed plans for London.
17 Jun 2018
at 11:51
StephenLondonParticipantWhat a shame as it would be nice to have some competition for Eurostar, as well as some alternatives in direct destinations from the UK by rail…
17 Jun 2018
at 14:30
LuganoPirateParticipant[quote quote=870869]What a shame as it would be nice to have some competition for Eurostar, as well as some alternatives in direct destinations from the UK by rail…[/quote]
I agree. It would mean a simple change in Frankfurt to go onwards to Switzerland and Italy.
Regarding fares, I’ve not checked in a while, but it was cheaper to buy a ticket through the DB website to London than it was via Eurostar. Savings were especially good in First Class.18 Jun 2018
at 14:23
MartynSinclairParticipantI also think it is a shame as I would love the option of going direct to Fra from my north London station with one change at St Pancras / King X. The now unknown of course would have been the price.. Last time I checked for a London to Cologne, it would have needed only 5 of us to have made it cheaper by PJ…
I notice the article said the tunnel had a max capacity of 20 trains per hour.. is the tunnel operating near to max capacity or is there plenty of ‘slots’ still available?
18 Jun 2018
at 16:30
Alex McWhirterParticipantRe: Through international trains London to Germany
I feel sure it will happen at some stage. It’s one reason why Eurostar purchased the new fleet of Siemens trainsets (another reason was that back in 2010 Eurostar thought it would be facing competition from DB).
As explained previously the Alstom trainsets cannot operate outside UK, France and Belgium.
In the past Eurostar said it had plans to operate the Siemens trains into Germany and possibly Switzerland.
But it will take time … as we’ve already seen with Amsterdam.
19 Jun 2018
at 11:30 -
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