Third potential rival to Eurostar emerges

A third company bidding to compete with Eurostar in running passenger trains through the Channel Tunnel has emerged.

Gemini, chaired by Labour peer Lord Berkeley, said it wants to operate trains connecting London with Paris and Brussels.

It added that “further exciting destinations” are “being developed”.

Spanish start-up company Evolyn and billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group are also developing proposals to launch services to rival Eurostar.

Gemini said it has been developing plans to launch international services over the last two years, and has been “engaging extensively with industry stakeholders”.

It added that it has submitted an application to regulator the Office of Rail and Road for access to Eurostar’s Temple Mills maintenance depot in north-east London.

Eurostar holds a monopoly in running passenger services through the Channel Tunnel, which opened in 1994.

The tunnel’s French owner, Getlink, and London St Pancras Highspeed, which owns the station in the capital and the high-speed tracks to the tunnel, last month signed a memorandum of understanding to commit to expanding rail connectivity.

Getlink believes there is the potential for services between London and locations such as Bordeaux, Cologne, Frankfurt, Geneva, Marseille and Zurich.

Gemini’s website states that Lord Berkeley spent 15 years “developing and building the Channel Tunnel”.

The peer said: “Our team has real strength, depth, vision and dynamism, and is superbly placed to offer customers choice on what is currently a monopoly route.”

Gemini chief executive Adrian Quine said: “The high-speed line connecting London and the continent through the Channel Tunnel is one of the great rail routes.

“With a whole new generation now choosing trains over planes, there is a great opportunity to bring real entrepreneurial flair and dynamism with competitive fares to Europe’s premier route.”

Gemini’s website also lists Ebbsfleet in Kent as one of its possible stations.

Eurostar stopped calling at Ebbsfleet and Ashford in March 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite local pressure for services to resume, the company has said it is focusing on its core routes.