New routes put Europe’s rail revival back on track

Three new or planned services – linking London with Switzerland, London with Stirling and Paris with Berlin – point to rising demand for cheaper, greener and easier cross-border rail travel

Europe’s rail revival is gathering pace with three new and planned services promising more direct, lower-cost and overnight journeys between major cities.

Eurostar, SBB and SNCF Voyageurs have moved a step closer to a direct London-Switzerland service, Lumo will launch a low-cost route between London and Stirling later this month, and European Sleeper has restored an overnight connection between Paris, Brussels and Berlin.

The projects offer passengers new ways to travel between Britain, Scotland and mainland Europe, with fewer changes and more direct city-to-city options.

A direct London-Switzerland train has moved forward after Eurostar, SBB and SNCF Voyageurs signed a memorandum of understanding to examine the service. The route could eventually connect London with Zurich in around six hours, Basel in five hours and Geneva in five-and-a-half hours.

The proposed service, which could be introduced as early as the 2030s, would run through France and build on Eurostar’s more than 30 years of cross-Channel operations.

Lumo’s new West Coast route will begin much sooner, with services between London Euston and Stirling launching on May 25. The open access operator will run a single-class service with fares from £29.90 between London and Stirling.

The route will also call at Milton Keynes, Nuneaton, Crewe, Preston, Carlisle, Lockerbie, Motherwell, Whifflet, Greenfaulds and Larbert, while Whifflet and Greenfaulds will receive their first direct rail services to London, creating new links for Coatbridge and Cumbernauld.

Lumo has also opened a new rail base in Preston, creating around 100 jobs.

Stuart Jones, managing director of First Rail Open Access, said: “This is a very exciting moment in our journey to launching a pioneering new service for the West Coast. Customers can look forward to simple, low-cost fares with an excellent experience on our services between Scotland, the North West of England and London.”

European Sleeper has also marked the return of a direct overnight train between Paris, Brussels and Berlin. The first Paris-Berlin departure left Gare du Nord at 18:03 on March 26 and arrived at Berlin Hauptbahnhof the following morning.

The service runs three times a week and increases the total number of departures between Brussels and Berlin to six each way per week.

Passengers can board in Paris in the evening and arrive in Berlin the next morning, with the route joining European Sleeper’s existing Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague service. A night train to Milan is also planned from September 2026.

Chris Engelsman, co-founder of European Sleeper, said: “Building a network doesn’t happen overnight. But step by step, we are proving that night train connections between major cities can work, for travellers and as a sustainable business.”

European Sleeper said the route was made possible through cooperation with operating partner Train Charter Services, onboard service provider Wagon Plastron, rolling stock and leasing partners including Alstom and RAILPOOL, and infrastructure managers in France, Belgium and Germany.

Jean-Luc Crucke, the Belgian Federal Minister for Mobility, Climate and Ecological Transition, said: “Not only does it help bring European citizens closer together, it also offers a meaningful and sustainable alternative in favour of low-carbon tourism. 

“For its part, the Belgian government has committed to supporting these initiatives and to removing any technical and regulatory obstacles to the development of these trains.”

Sabine Wendt, chief executive of visitBerlin, added: “The new direct connection between Paris and Berlin is a strong signal for the comeback of night trains in Europe. 

“Demand for travel to Berlin is clearly growing, with around 50 percent of guests already arriving by rail. This connection makes travel between the two European capitals significantly easier and gives new momentum to international city tourism.”

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_{Main image: Europe’s rail revival is gathering pace, with new and planned services including Lumo’s low-cost London-Stirling route, European Sleeper’s restored Paris-Brussels-Berlin night train, and proposals for a direct London-Switzerland connection via Eurostar, SBB and SNCF Voyageurs. Composite artwork: Belters News. Image credits: European Sleeper; Lumo; Eurostar image by Florian Pépellin, Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.}