London-Bordeaux direct train service could launch within two years

Eurostar could face competition as infrastructure operators confer on new high-speed link

London to south-west France by rail in under five hours: that is the prospect for British travellers to Bordeaux and beyond within two years.

Four infrastructure operators have met to discuss new high-speed rail links using the Channel Tunnel, which would boost their business as well as increasing travel opportunities.

HS1 Ltd, the owner and operator of the High Speed 1 link from London St Pancras to Folkestone, says it is “in advanced planning with three other international railway operators along the proposed route”.

The trio comprise Eurotunnel, which owns the undersea link and collects payments from train operators; SNCF Réseau, the infrastructure owner in France, corresponding to Network Rail; and Lisea, the firm which owns the new 188-mile high-speed line from Tours to Bordeaux, which opened in 2017.

In an unprecedented collaboration, the railway operators are coordinating possible train paths from London via the Channel Tunnel, Calais and Lille to the Paris bypass route, and onwards to Tours and Bordeaux.

At present the fastest rail journey takes five hours and 25 minutes, including a complicated cross-Paris trip between Gare du Nord and Gare Montparnasse.

On 4 April 2018, Eurostar launched its much-delayed London-Amsterdam service. Problems with the border control operation in the Netherlands means that London-bound passengers cannot travel on the direct link from the Dutch capital, and must instead change trains at Brussels.

HS1 has said that security controls will be located in Bordeaux, avoiding the need to change trains.

Dyan Crowther, chief executive of HS1, said: “There’s a real demand for international train services to provide a comfortable and better-connected service, especially for leisure journeys.

“This is the first time that railway operators have collaborated in this way and saves the train operator having to do a lot of legwork. The route is almost ready for a train operator to turn up and turn the key as soon as the UK and French governments agree on border controls.

“With the right commitment, we could be looking at new services in the next couple of years. The service will take passengers direct from city centre to city centre, taking the hassle out of travel to south-west France.”

A spokesperson for Eurostar told The Independent: “We are always interested in new route opportunities but our priority at this time is our new service to Amsterdam.”

Around 1.2 million people currently fly each year between London and Bordeaux. At present easyJet flies from Gatwick and Luton, British Airways flies from Gatwick and Ryanair flies from Stansted.

Bordeaux is also served from Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh and Southampton.

The air distance from London to Bordeaux is 460 miles, with a typical journey time of one hour and 40 minutes. The rail distance is around 600 miles because of the route taken.

HS1 says it is also working on direct routes to Geneva and Frankfurt.

Mark Smith, the founder of the Seat61.com international rail website, questioned whether a route to Bordeaux, or the other cities, was viable.

“It must have a large enough total market size such that the share of that market likely to be achieved by a train would fill a 900-seat train at least once a day. It also needs to be filled all year round rather than merely on key dates seasonally,” he said. “Ideally, you want some business traffic as well as leisure, even if longer journeys naturally err towards the leisure market.”

“London-Rotterdam-Amsterdam hits all of these squarely on the head. None of the other likely destinations do so anything like as well.”

He speculated that a London-Cologne train, connecting with the German rail network, might prove more successful.