The Paris-London connection is highly sought after by the competition, and a very serious consortium is entering the market. Evolyn wants to shake up the monopoly and compete directly with the Eurostar by offering a more economical alternative to this journey.
Since 1994, Eurostar has offered a regular service between several cities: Paris, Brussels and London using the Channel Tunnel. A well-established monopoly, but it could very well be that the Eurostar Group (which has owned the entire Eurostar business since April 2022 and was recently the victim of a security breach) will have to face a major competitor. The Evolyn consortium, formed very recently, has just announced an order for 12 high-speed trains from the company Alstom. Their project: to open a commercial service under the Channel by the year 2026, with a travel time between Paris and London of 2 hours 15 minutes.
Challenge the Eurostar
For a long time now, Getlink (the company managing the tunnel crossing the Channel) has been seeking to ensure that new rail operators run their trains on their rails. Even if other companies use it for freight transport like DB Shenker or Eurotunnel, Getlink wants to diversify further.
The Evolyn consortium has several facets, and is made up of different Franco-British industrial and financial partners. The exact composition of the organization is not known at this time. Only one player is currently recognized: a British carrier called Mobico. A company whose main shareholder is the Spanish Cosmen family. She owns a veritable small transport empire in her native country as well as in China.
Evolyn’s ambitions
The project was born three years ago: according to forecasts, the initial investment to fuel the initiative will be 1 billion pounds sterling, or the equivalent of 940 million euros. According to information held by Le Figaro, Evolyn will attack Eurostar Group head-on by proposing an aggressive pricing policy. A tactic to be able to offer cheaper tickets to customers. The program goes further: Evolyn also wants to expand its network more widely on the European continent, in particular with a Paris-Brussels connection.
The Channel Tunnel has the capacity to accommodate new connections, and Getlink welcomes Evolyn’s initiative, because until today, no serious competitor to Eurostar has succeeded in bringing a connection project to fruition. With a fairly decent first investment, Evolyn seems to be on the right track for the moment. It remains to be seen whether they will respect their announced pricing policy in the long term if the project comes to fruition.
Source : BFMTV
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