Ahead of its 30th anniversary in May 2024, Eurotunnel restated its ambitions for the future on Thursday, announcing aims to double both passenger numbers and the number of destinations served from the UK in the coming decade.
Yann Leriche, CEO of Getlink group and its subsidiary Eurotunnel, highlighted the possibilities for growth at a time when rail "momentum" is at a peak. The tunnel is currently running 400 trains a day, but this could be expanded to 1,000 trains by modernising the tunnel's power supply, L'Echo reports.
After Paris and Brussels, it took 25 years for the company to link London to Amsterdam. Currently, one million people use the line; Leriche hopes this will double by 2025 by resizing Amsterdam's station.
Destination known
Getlink is also now looking further afield, branching out to more cities in France, Germany and Switzerland and promising to double the number of cities served from the UK within ten years.
Two operators have already confirmed their plans to rival Eurostar. In October, Spanish rail firm Evolyn announced its intention to start work on the Channel Tunnel in 2026, having ordered 12 trains from French manufacturer Alstom. This was followed by Dutch start-up Heuro indicating its desire to compete with the London-Amsterdam line last month. Other names of potential competitors have also circulated.
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Sceptics argue that there has long been talk of new passenger rail links between London and the continent but none have come to fruition. Getlink, however, maintains that it is pulling out all the stops: "We have standardised everything that can be standardised and we have carried out the opportunity studies ourselves," Leriche told L'Echo.
The company CEO revealed a number of routes that would be of great interest to potential investors in Germany and Switzerland. The London-Brussels-Cologne-Frankfurt route has been fully studied, including the stations; all that is missing is an operator. Eurotunnel is already marking out the routes to Zurich and Geneva but has not yet completed all the studies on the stations to implement the necessary security for trains to the UK.
Cutting carbon
Leriche hopes to achieve a modal shift from air to rail with these new routes. It is estimated that, with journeys of around four hours by train, rail is eventually capable of taking up to 40% market share from air transport. "There are four million passengers on the London-Frankfurt route today. We estimate that we could take a 40% market share on this destination and that the market would grow by at least 20%."
The market would then grow to five million passengers. Two million passengers a year could opt for rail, with a carbon footprint reduced by 97% per passenger.
The CEO also believes that greater competition and more trains will eventually lower fares for passengers. To convince potential operators to come forward, Eurotunnel is prepared to provide up to €50 million in assistance. Eurostar has also received €9 million from Eurotunnel, an amount that is set to rise to €23 million by 2030 when Eurostar aims to carry 30 million passengers, a good proportion of whom will pass through the Channel tunnel.
