Eurostar will soon be (quite literally) levelling up their locomotive offering, as they’ve just put in a rather hefty order for a fleet of double-decker trains. As part of a landmark £2 billion investment, the new trains have been built by Alstom Group, and thirty of them have been snapped up by Eurostar.
The shiny new trains in question are called the ‘Eurostar Celestia’, and will be the very first to operate through the Channel Tunnel on the UK network. The new fleet of double-decker vehicles have been created with a bespoke design, that’ll perfectly capture the unique (and oh-so chic) experience that passengers on board the Celestia trains can expect.
Eurostar Celestia
Spanning 200-metres in length, each Celestia train is set to boast approximately 540 seats. This means that when running as a 400-metre formation (as they tend to do), there will be capacity for around 1,080 passengers on board. That’s roughly 20% more capacity than the current services offer, marking a sizeable step in Eurostar‘s ongoing growth journey.
The ever-so sleek Celestia vehicles have been designed with sustainability and accessibility at the forefront. The design process involved input from various passenger and accessibility groups, and have been created to go hand-in-hand with Eurostar’s long-term environmental goals.
The Eurostar Celestia fleet is set to operate in all five countries currently served by the Eurostar, including the recently announced new routes to Geneva and Frankfurt. The new trains will operate alongside the 17 e320 trains that are currently in service, bringing the total number of vehicles in Eurostar’s fleet to 67.
When will the Eurostar Celestia trains be available to ride?
The first of the Eurostar Celestia trains are set to hit the track in January 2031, and commercial services will supposedly start running in the May. Eurostar plans to maintain the entire Celestia fleet at their Temple Mills depot in Leyton. The depot will need to undergo a bit of a glow-up to make space for the double-decker vehicles, but the new fleet is set to create around 350 more highly-skilled jobs at the London depot.
Gwendoline Cazenave, CEO at Eurostar, said: “Placing this milestone order marks the concrete realisation of Eurostar’s ambitious growth strategy — to reach 30 million passengers by investing in a brand-new fleet. We’re particularly proud to bring double-decker trains to the UK for the very first time.”
Read more: A Guide To Everywhere The Eurostar Can Take You Directly From London