As Virgin Group plans to raise £700 million (€832.9 million) for the project, a competitor to the inter-channel train service Eurostar’a could emerge in 2029’.
The high-frequency service will initially connect London’ to Paris and Brussels’, while trains to Amsterdam’ are part of the long-term plan.
Virgin Group, which originally published the story in the Financial Times, said ’a plans to raise £300 million (€356.9 million) in equity and £400 million (€475.9 million) in debt.
The firm, which is owned by billionaire Richard Branson’a, also said that FT’ye plans to become a basic capital investor by providing a large amount of funds for the launch of the service.
London St Pancras train station is working with Getlink, the owner of the Channel tunnel, to increase passenger capacity at ’'s international train terminal as demand grows.
St Pancras is preparing to more than double the number of passengers who can travel from the station on international trips.
Last year, Getlink offered a £50 million (€59.5 million) subsidy to develop new Cross-Channel rail services.
For Eurostar competitors, the installation process will still be a challenging one due to the dispute over the East London rail depot.
The warehouse is the only space where high-speed trains between the Channels can be parked, and Eurostar claims to use all available points.
Virgin, along with another new contender, Evolyn, applied to ’'s railway regulatory agency in the United Kingdom for access.
Virgin Group spokesperson Euronews’e said that “ is ripe for cross-channel route change and will benefit from competition.
Given its award-winning experience in the “Train industry and its history of building successful travel companies around the world, we think Virgin’ is the right brand to make it happen, ” added.
Although “Virgin has not yet committed to launching a service, we are looking for investment from like-minded partners to invest with Virgin and are pleased with the progress made so far.”
