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Eurostar has finalised a €2bn deal to buy next generation trains from Alstom that will form the backbone of its expansion to Geneva and Frankfurt. 

The group will receive the first delivery of six double-decker Alstom Avelia Horizon models in 2031 and has ordered 30 in total.

The new trains, which will replace its ageing fleet of 34 Alstom models and run alongside its current 17 Siemens e320 trains, will allow the company to expand services at a time when it faces the possibility of competition through the Channel Tunnel. 

“This order is a concrete milestone in our growth strategy,” said chief executive Gwendoline Cazenave.

Eurostar aims to further boost its operations by increasing services between London and Paris, and expanding into new markets where it believes it can compete with airlines. 

It is targeting locations where it is possible to travel from London in under five hours, and where it thinks there is sufficient business, leisure and family travel to attract customers who are prepared to travel by rail, Cazenave said. 

“We are going to connect big cities that are below five hours’ journey time, because what we know is that above five hours, the train is not relevant.” 

The group aims to connect services with other high-speed operators such as France’s TGV and, in time, the UK’s High Speed 2 rail link. 

Its growth plans come at the time when it is facing the end of its monopoly running passenger trains through the Channel Tunnel. 

The company is facing a looming decision by the UK’s rail regulator, the Office of Road and Rail, over whether it can continue to have exclusive use of the Temple Mills repair depot for its trains, or whether rival services will be allowed to use the site. 

The depot is leased by Eurostar and is the only place to park and maintain high-speed cross-Channel trains in the UK. Rival operators including Virgin, Evolyn, Gemini and Trenitalia are all proposing rival services that would break Eurostar’s hold on passenger trains in the Channel Tunnel — but they require access to the depot to service trains. 

Cazenave said Eurostar plans to hire an additional 350 people at the depot to service its new trains, taking its total to 800. 

Eurostar has options on an additional 20 new Alstom trains, and has secured production slots for all 50 trains. The new trains will have a capacity of 1,080 seats, around a fifth higher than the current 890 seats. The Alstom models were selected in part because the company could deliver them sooner than other alternatives were available, Cazenave said. 

The purchase will be financed substantially by debt, enabled by the company refinancing a large part of the borrowings it built up during the Covid pandemic. 

About 400 trains a day use the tunnel — including freight and car-carrying trains — though Getlink, which manages and operates the infrastructure of the tunnel, estimates it has capacity for about 1,000 per day. 

Having signed the Alstom deal, Eurostar will work with the Channel Tunnel Safety Authority, and Getlink, to certify the trains for use in the tunnel, a process that often takes several years.