There’s something magical about jumping on a London train and ending up in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels or another of Eurostar’s destinations.
And, their world is expanding. Soon, you’ll be able to hop on a train to Germany from London for the first time under the Eurostar umbrella. The train service is adding a host of new journeys once they join forces with Thalys, a high-speed operator that handles routes in mainland Europe.
The merger would combine routes from both Thalys and Eurostar networks, giving us a large expansion to choose from, including places that were previously unreachable for UK travellers on one train company.
This train combination of the ages was previously proposed back in 2019, but was put on hold due to reduced travel caused by the pandemic. Now, the European Commission has given the go-ahead for the deal, and it comes as part of the EU’s plans to increase high-speed train travel as a more environmentally-friendly alternative to flying.
Under the merger, it’s expected that trains on the new routes will fall under the name “Eurostar”, and is set to open up a pretty huge set of routes under one network. Currently, Eurostar trains run from the UK to France, Belgium and the Netherlands, but after these new plans you could soon be booking your train travel from London St Pancras to Berlin!