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Trains to Europe Are lower fares and more trains coming?

Green Signals

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For thirty years, High Speed services between London, Paris and Brussels have been in the hands of single operator – Eurostar. Things may be about to change. On 13th August 2026, the ORR announced the pre-approval of Virgin Train’s Track Access Agreement for High Speed 1. Other operators are keen to join them.

Not before time some would say. The rest of Europe is liberalising access to its high-speed network at an accelerating pace and the benefits have been dramatic. In Spain, prices between Madrid and Barcelona have fallen 44%. Between Madrid and Malaga, 52%. Across available routes, 85% of travellers now choose train over plane on corridors where both air and rail are viable. It’s a similar story in Italy and France.

Trainline, Europe’s leading independent train and coach ticket booking platform recently commissioned a report to look at the benefits of increased competition on high speed rail routes and to put some figures on the outcomes. And on Thursday 16th September 2026, their report entitled “Competition Delivers: What Europe’s high-speed lines reveal about the future of the Channel route” was published.

To mark the occasion, a special event was held at London St Pancras station hosted jointly by Trainline and London St. Pancras High Speed.
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Read the report here: https://www.trainlinegroup.com/media/...

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Credits:
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Presenters - Nigel Harris (@railnigel on X) & Richard Bowker CBE (@SRichardBowker). General Manager: Stef Foster (@stefatrail)

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20 Comments

@octarinehk 3 hours ago

The promise of “turn up and go”. I remmwbet when that was promised in the 1990s. And we still have to book 16 weeks ahead and depart at 6am to travek for a reasonable price

@drychaf 2 hours ago

A couple of years ago, I boarded a train from the top of my Welsh valley, and proceeded to catch a chain of trains throughout the day. By around 10pm I was in the South of France. I'd love to make a habit of this sort of voyage, but the price is still a challenge. (I flew back)

@AndrewJonesMcGuire 6 hours ago

Hmmm he kinda sidetracked the whole people want to travel from closer to home thing. Like I can go to Edinburgh airport and get a cheap Ryanair flight to Germany. To go by train I have to first travel to London, and then make my way to St Pancras. And stupidly right now, the return cost of travelling from Edinburgh to London on the train, is MORE expensive than the entire Europe side of the journey.

@stephenbates306 7 hours ago

The barrier to growth has always been the security and customs regime imposed on Eurostar, and any one else wanting to enter the market.

@darksars3622 4 hours ago (edited)

I remember making a comment talking about how the Eurostar merger with Thalys and I was theorising how trains could go from London to places as far as Madrid, Nice, Warsaw, or Stockholm. I could go from theory to reality now.

@watcherzero5256 4 hours ago

The Italian experience is useful and was about creating new linkages to compete with air, but I am less sure on the Spanish experience, it was an extremely low frequency network with only half a dozen services per day. Eurostar by comparison is already a high frequency service so I am not sure the capacity gain will be as great.

@wdielwlairajmd 8 hours ago

A good event - but disappointing that “The TrainLine” get a free ride here considering that they’ve ripped UK passengers off for decades, with their booking fees and misleading adverts.

@slimchris113 8 hours ago

Its good thats its happening, fares falling is great but st pancras cant take all of that it should be distributed along hs1, stratford to ashford should be open. Then hopefully UK gets its head together and complete hs2 and link it up to HS1

@simonh317 7 hours ago

I understand that Gemini are looking at opening a facility at Ashford Chart Leacon, and of course Eurostar are appealing Virgin using Temple Mills.

@Pixel_pixie963 13 minutes ago

Could it be possible to make Victoria an international station? Using Fakenham Junction to join HS1. I know the 3rd rail issue would be a problem. But the Class 373 was able to do both both lines. Maybe when the new trains are built, add this spec to them!

@petergilbert72 57 minutes ago

I’m hoping Trenitalia will arrive first. I’d love a direct train to Milano (once the new Alpine base tunnel and LGV open).

@richardmoody9974 3 hours ago

Everyone dodged the question about how to spread connectivity beyond London. To the degree that one guy ended up stating that St Pancras was 17 minutes from Trafagar square. Great answer for anyone living in Bristol, Birmingham and all points north. Rubbish panel really, it's not a debate if everyone already agrees! All we got was group think.

@apuldram 7 hours ago

Think I’d have retired early to the Betjeman Arms… in fact I still might!

@junglist_ikon 5 hours ago

Honest question: If ticket prices fell 50% on key routes, where do operators actually save that much money? It's not like the state-owned companies were turning enormous profits before that, doesn't that just mean they had to save on personnel and service quality? Or even worse, they were actually making profits on these routes and subsidizing routes with less demand, which they now have to close just so they can compete with other (also state-owned) companies?

@Benjamin.Jamin. 7 hours ago

As noted @32:00 Gare du Nord and St Pancras are already overcrowded. Early 2030's? Hmm I'd like to believe that's possible. Harder at Gare du Nord.

The other big problem is price. Which this could help! Eurostar is just soooo expensive that London to Paris by plane is attractive again.

Fingers crossed it all happens though!

@ceanothus_bluemoon 1 hour ago

Firstly this is Europe.
On deregulation...if it has worked so well at lowering fares and getting bums on seats on the mainland, why, after years of competing companies here, do prices just keep going up? A cursory look at last minute prices are staggering compared with budget airlines.

Heathrow is not "half empty", it operates at around 99% capacity !

I thought significant parts of the UK rail network were also " at capacity" hence the need for HS2 to relieve pressure?

How could fares as mentioned fall by over 50%, were they massively inflated to start with? Where are cuts being made? Staff, quality, lack of maintenance etc?

Virgin make a mess of running here, so how on earth have they been picked for the Chunnel !

@brunnian 1 hour ago

I heard no mention of terminating trains at Ebbsfleet or Stratford. Surely that would open up capacity over St Pancras?

And surely connecting trains could run to The ECML or the Estvof England?

@eddyridesabicycle 9 hours ago

Did anyone ask former Prime Minister Rishi to attend?

@screwdriver5181 6 hours ago

When are we going to get through trains from the north-west

@barcooter8248 5 hours ago

Why would we opening up what is in effect a bottleneck to open competition and fill it to capacity? the inevitable reduction in maintenance access and resulting drop in reliability will lead to chaos and open access operators being compensated by the network operator I.e. the British taxpayer.