New Rail Operator London to Paris?

[WBG Station 1935]

Announced that rail company -- Evolyn -- plans to operate trains between Paris and London beginning 2025.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/planned-eurostar-competitor-evolyn-buy-12-trains-frances-alstom-2023-10-11/


https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/12/spanish-rail-firm-evolyn-planning-london-paris-service-rival-eurostar


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-rail-service-will-connect-london-and-paris-in-2025-180983075/


https://www.travelandleisure.com/evolyn-2025-london-paris-train-eurostar-8351294

 

[WBG Station 1935]

https://www.alstom.com/press-releas...tement-evolyn-press-release-issued-october-11

 

[Willbridge]

https://www.alstom.com/press-releas...tement-evolyn-press-release-issued-october-11

That isn't an auspicious beginning.

 

[slasher-fun]

I'll believe it when I'll see it, even Le Train seems more credible at this point...

 

[WBG Station 1935]

More details and obstacles faced --

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/10/22/eurostar-rival-evolyn-shake-up-channel-tunnel-rail/

 

[FunNut]

A second operator would be good. Competition helps keep fares lower, usually.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

A second operator would be good. Competition helps keep fares lower, usually.

In France the real competition is run out of the country. The French National Operator then runs a discount service pretending the customers have options.

 

[slasher-fun]

France has two main hurdles for competitors:
- to be able to run on most of the French network, trains need a device called KVB. Their production has stopped years ago, and SNCF Voyageurs owns almost all of them (Trenitalia France has to rent theirs from SNCF Voyageurs...). New modernized devices are currently being tested, but won't be approved before a few years.
- track and station access charges are among the highest in Europe, which makes it extremely expensive to run a train (France has decided that those charges have to be 100% covered by train operators, unlike other countries, and unlike what is done with roads for example...)