Eurostar and London St. Pancras Highspeed have formally announced their joint ambition to significantly expand the international capacity at St. Pancras International, one of Europe’s busiest cross-border rail terminals. A letter of intent signed by the two parties on Wednesday 2 July 2025 marks the first step in a major revamp project aimed at more than doubling the number of international passengers the station can accommodate per hour—from 1,800 in 2024 to nearly 5,000 by the end of the decade.
The upgrade is designed to futureproof the Grade I-listed terminus amid rising demand for sustainable high-speed rail travel and growing interest from new international operators.
Architecture firm Hawkins\Brown has been appointed to undertake a detailed design and feasibility study, building on a strategic review launched in late 2024. This review identified capacity constraints and a rapidly growing market for international train travel as key motivations behind the project.
Three phases
Currently handling around 2,000 international passengers per hour, the station will be redesigned over three phases.
Phase One will involve optimising border and security processes to raise capacity to 2,700 passengers per hour within three to four years.
Phase Two, due for completion by 2028, will focus on improving the flow between the international zone and the main concourse, aiming to raise throughput to close to 5,000 passengers per hour.
Phase Three, scheduled for the 2030s, will explore longer-term enhancements, including potential relocation of the arrivals area and further terminal restructuring.
The plans will rely on smart redesigns of the ground floor and existing infrastructure to avoid major structural alterations to the historic station. Hawkins\Brown, known for its work on Stratford International and other major transport and heritage projects, has been tasked with delivering a reimagined layout that preserves the heritage of the site while modernising its international functions
Eurostar expansion
Eurostar, which carried 19.5 million passengers last year and now welcomes up to 45,000 travellers per day, is investing heavily in expansion. The company plans to introduce direct services to Geneva in Switzerland and Frankfurt in Germany in the early 2030s and will resume and expand London–Amsterdam services via Rotterdam.
A new Amsterdam–Brussels–Geneva service is also in the pipeline. Eurostar has earmarked a €2 billion investment in its high-speed fleet to support this growth.
High-speed corridor
Passenger volumes on the high-speed corridor are forecast to triple by 2040, rising from 11 million to 35 million annually. London St. Pancras Highspeed, the infrastructure owner formerly known as HS1 Ltd, commissioned independent research earlier this year that confirmed this outlook and reinforced the urgency of expanding capacity.
Richard Thorp, Chief Operating Officer of London St. Pancras Highspeed, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Eurostar to expand capacity at St. Pancras International. With growing passenger demand for international train travel, it is important that St. Pancras International station is future-proofed and optimised to accommodate this.”
Simon Lejeune, Chief Safety and Stations Officer at Eurostar, added: “Eurostar is the green gateway to Europe, and we’re proud to be working with London St. Pancras Highspeed and Hawkins\Brown to reimagine our space for the future and offer an even better customer experience. This project will play a vital role in enabling our expansion to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and now Germany and Switzerland.”
Questions over the monopoly
However, the expansion raises questions over Eurostar’s long-standing monopoly on international services from the United Kingdom. While the company is a co-signatory of the expansion plan, it has shown little appetite for welcoming competition through the Channel Tunnel.
High access charges, border control complexities post-Brexit, and limited terminal space at St. Pancras have historically deterred new entrants. But that may be changing.
Competitors
Several operators—including Virgin, Gemini, and the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS), the parent company of Trenitalia and backed by Evolyn—have expressed interest in launching open access services through the Tunnel.
The Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has also floated plans to acquire high-speed rolling stock for potential UK-bound routes. In February 2025, London St. Pancras Highspeed signed a cooperation agreement with Getlink, operator of the Channel Tunnel, to attract new entrants.
Proposed destinations for future services include Cologne, Zurich, Marseille and Bordeaux.
Robert Sinclair stated: “As we see demand for international rail travel grow, London St. Pancras Highspeed and Eurotunnel have an important role to play in encouraging both new and existing train operators to expand capacity and launch new destinations.”
Despite Eurostar’s central involvement in the project, it is widely understood that the company is working to ensure that the design of the upgraded station primarily supports its own operational needs. No formal funding commitments have yet been disclosed, and it remains unclear who will finance the transformation. Large-scale infrastructure projects of this nature are typically funded by the infrastructure owner—in this case, London St. Pancras Highspeed—with potential contributions from operators.
Only access
Eurostar is also lobbying UK authorities to retain exclusive access to the country’s only international train depot, arguing that capacity limitations make sharing the facility with rivals unfeasible. The depot, alongside the restricted capacity at St. Pancras itself, remains one of the principal barriers to liberalising access to the Channel Tunnel for new operators.
While Eurostar seeks to expand its own reach into Germany and Switzerland, it may soon be forced to compete with others aiming to do the same. The transformation of St. Pancras International will not only shape the future of cross-border rail travel but could also determine whether the Channel Tunnel corridor remains the domain of a single operator—or finally opens up to real competition.
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