EUROTUNNEL and London St Pancras Highspeed, formerly HS1 Ltd, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote the growth of rail traffic between London and major European cities.
The MoU covers optimising connections between infrastructure networks, coordinating and developing train paths, and offering services to new destinations.
The signing follows London St Pancras Highspeed’s study into passenger capacity at St Pancras International, which found that there is potential to accommodate up to 5000 people per hour at the station, which would fully support the desired growth in high-speed services. The two partners are working with governments to highlight the environmental benefits of rail journeys of less than 6 hours.
“We are keen to drive forward attractive opportunities for low-carbon mobility with a range of new destinations in Germany, Switzerland and France,” says Yann Leriche, CEO of Getlink, parent company of Eurotunnel. “This partnership with London St Pancras Highspeed is an essential catalyst for accelerating this growth momentum.”
Swiss-French agreement
Separately, during a summit in Paris on artificial intelligence, Swiss transport minister, Albert Rösti, and French transport minister, Philippe Tabarot, signed two declarations of intent on rail transport. One agreement concerns the development of rail freight on the left bank of the Rhine via France. The second is devoted to the strategic development of Franco-Swiss rail links.
The development potential of the eight cross-border routes with extensions to Paris, London or Brussels as well as to Lyon, the south of France and Spain are to be studied.
