GERMAN national rail company, Deutsche Bahn (DB), is to start rail services from London St Pancras International in December 2013. The initial plan is to run three services a day to Brussels.
From there the train will divide, with one section going on to Brussels and Amsterdam via Rotterdam and the other to Cologne and Frankfurt. The plan was unveiled to executives in the British rail industry at a briefing at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel earlier this month. DB will use its newly built ICE 3 (class 407) for the service which will reduce travel time from London to Cologne and Amsterdam to under four hours and to Frankfurt to just over five.
In July, DB submitted an application for fundamental approval for its ICE trains to use the Channel Tunnel, according to the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC), the safety authority responsible. The network is optimistic that it will be given clearance by the IGC this year. The long expected move will break Eurostar’s monopoly on the Channel Tunnel passenger rail services. Currently passengers to the Dutch capital or to Cologne and Frankfurt have to change at Brussels on to the Thalys high-speed service run by the French and Belgian rail networks, SNCF and SNCB.
Deutsche Bahn to start London services
Comments | 0
