{"id":188721,"date":"2023-11-15T06:45:40","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T06:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/?p=188721"},"modified":"2023-11-15T06:45:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T06:45:40","slug":"is-sir-richard-branson-plotting-to-launch-a-eurostar-rival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/travel\/is-sir-richard-branson-plotting-to-launch-a-eurostar-rival\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Sir Richard Branson plotting to launch a Eurostar rival?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Is Sir Richard Branson plotting to launch a Eurostar rival? Billionaire rumoured to be planning a return to the railways with train operation between London and the Continent<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Former Virgin Trains boss Phil Whittingham is reportedly overseeing the plan\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Eurostar has had a monopoly on cross-Channel services since 1994\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>READ MORE:\u00a0Inside the restaurant where BREAD is served as a main course\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sir Richard Branson is rumoured to be plotting the launch of a rival train service to Eurostar.<\/p>\n<p>It has been reported that his former Virgin Trains boss, Phil Whittingham, is overseeing the plan.<\/p>\n<p>According to The Telegraph, he has been in talks with infrastructure officials to discuss prospective routes between London\u00a0St Pancras and the Continent.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/14\/10\/77777853-12746937-image-a-22_1699958118092.jpg\" height=\"438\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sir Richard Branson is rumoured to be plotting the launch of a rival train service to Eurostar<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/14\/10\/77777553-12746937-image-a-19_1699957844126.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>It has been reported that former Virgin Trains boss Phil Whittingham is overseeing Sir Richard&#8217;s return to the railways<\/p>\n<p>Phil Whittingham became managing director of Virgin Trains in January 2015 and was made MD of its successor, Avanti West Coast, in December 2019.<\/p>\n<p>He left last year amid furore over Avanti&#8217;s punctuality record.<\/p>\n<p>Eurostar is the only company that has run passenger trains between London and the Continent since the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994.<\/p>\n<p>Other proposed rival operators have been unable to overcome regulatory hurdles.<\/p>\n<p>Eurostar, which runs services to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, said it aims to carry 30million passengers a year by 2030 and &#8216;become the benchmark for sustainable travel in Europe&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>The Richard Branson rumours follow news that company Evolyn has agreed to purchase 12 trains as a part of a bid to start cross-Channel rail services in 2025.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/14\/10\/77777855-12746937-image-a-21_1699958108277.jpg\" height=\"425\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Eurostar is the only company that has run passenger trains between London and the Continent since the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994<\/p>\n<p>The company said it is led by the Spanish Cosmen family \u2013 an investor in coach and train company Mobico, formerly known as National Express \u2013 and is backed by &#8216;important British and French industrial and financial partners&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>It said it had reached an agreement to acquire 12 trains from French manufacturer Alstom, with an &#8216;option to scale up to 16&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Evolyn chief executive Jorge Cosmen said: &#8216;The acquisition of 12 high-speed, state-of-the-art trains, to be expanded to a minimum of 16 according to our forecasts, is the definitive step in the materialisation of Evolyn, a high-speed rail operator that has been under development for three years.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Virgin told MailOnline Travel: &#8216;Virgin doesn\u2019t comment on rumour or speculation.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/travel\/article-12746937\/Is-Sir-Richard-Branson-plotting-launch-Eurostar-rival.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is Sir Richard Branson plotting to launch a Eurostar rival? Billionaire rumoured to be planning a return to the railways<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Sir Richard Branson plotting to launch a Eurostar rival? - News Need News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/travel\/is-sir-richard-branson-plotting-to-launch-a-eurostar-rival\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Sir Richard Branson plotting to launch a Eurostar rival? - News Need News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is Sir Richard Branson plotting to launch a Eurostar rival? 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