Eurostar rival orders 19 new trains, confirms London-Paris route to open in 2029

The arrival of a direct Paris-London train service to rival Eurostar is one step closer, as the Italian train company Trenitalia has ordered 10 new trains to operate on the line. 

The 10 new models are part of a €2 billion bulk order of 19 trains from Hitachi Rail and will be completely new ‘Frecciarossa’ sets to be used on the route, which Trenitalia is looking to open in 2029. 

In total, 10 trains will be used solely for the London-Paris route, with nine others used for Trentitalia’s existing routes from Paris to Lyon, Marseille, and Milan, BFMTV reported  Trenitalia France’s Commercial Director Fabrice Toledano as saying.

All sets will be single-deckers (unlike the new TGV M sets ordered by French state rail operator SNCF), allowing them to operate on several European high-speed routes including the Channel Tunnel and UK’s Dover-London line.

For its part, Eurostar is looking to order up to 50 new trains by 2031 to offer increased services across its Europe-wide network.

New Channel Tunnel services on the way 

FS Group (Italian state railway operator) is leading the race to offer an alternative to Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel via its Trenitalia brand, with other groups including Virgin Trains and Evolyn (a new Spanish enterprise) also part of the race.

Trenitalia is looking to run 10 daily round-trips on the route from 2029, after starting construction on an €80 million facility to house trains near Paris. 

The group looked to have been pipped to the post by Virgin, after the latter was given authorisation to house trains at Temple Mills, the only facility in the UK capable of storing trains going to France. Trenitalia’s own request to use the facilities was denied in October 2025. 

The Italian group is looking to bypass this restriction through its new Paris facility, which will house all trains and materials instead of using the UK site.

Expansion of Temple Mills – or the construction of a new facility in the UK – is possible but would require funding from several parties including Eurostar and its rivals. 

Virgin is still set to launch its own service in 2030, even if Trenitalia becomes the first direct rival a year earlier.

Competition encouraged

There is widespread interest in increasing the number of operators and services between the capitals.

Both Getlink (operator of the Channel Tunnel) and British rail authorities are keen to see more trains run between London and Paris. 

Getlink stated in 2023 that it wanted to double the number of services running through the tunnel, and following recent upgrades believes it can handle up to 1,000 trains per day on the route.

British rail authorities want to maximise usage of the high-speed line between London and Dover and encourage more passengers to use the tunnel rather than fly to Paris (currently around 40% of all journeys between the two cities take place through flights).

Even Saint Pancras – the London terminal for international services – is calling for increased competition, following improvements that could see around 5,000 passengers per hour use the international terminal.