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Eurostar International Ltd

EIL

Eurostar International Ltd is the high-speed train operator linking mainly London St Pancras International to Paris and to Lille/Brussels/Rotterdam/Amsterdam.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Tom Berendsen (Member of the European Parliament)

12 Mar 2025 · Railway policy

Response to Digitalisation of identity cards issued to EU citizens

18 Dec 2024

Please find attached Eurostar and SNCF's feedback on the proposal, from the perspective of international rail operations crossing the EU-UK border. We remain available for further engagement.
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Response to Mandate for France regarding agreement on the safety and interoperability requirements within the Channel Tunnel

25 Jul 2023

Eurostar International Ltd (EIL) is a railway undertaking holding a UK operating licence and safety certificate. Together with Thalys International Factory, we run high-speed services between London, Paris, Brussels and the Netherlands. EIL welcomes the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and the Council empowering the French Republic to negotiate, sign and conclude an international agreement on the safety and interoperability requirements within the Channel Fixed Link (2023/0192 (COD)).This follows up on the 2022 agreement signed between France and the UK under the EU's auspices regarding the mutual recognition of operating licences in the Channel Tunnel. Reaching an agreement on safety and interoperability will provide Channel Tunnel operators with a stable and single regulatory framework. We call on all parties to find pragmatic arrangements ensuring safe, interoperable and free movement of trains from the European Union to the United Kingdom through the single, complex engineering structure that is the Channel Fixed Link. We encourage the French Republic to work out a sound agreement for a coherent railway safety and interoperability framework under the conditions described in Article 2 of the aforementioned legal act. We note that the guarantees provided by the agreement will be of special importance in the context of increasing exchanges between the EU and the United Kingdom.
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Meeting with Ciarán Cuffe (Member of the European Parliament)

10 Feb 2023 · Sustainable transport

Response to Digitalisation of travel documents and facilitation of travel

6 Oct 2022

Eurostar is the international high-speed passenger rail operator linking the UK and Western Europe. We carry 11 million passengers a year (2019 figures), including 7 million unique passengers and 30% business passengers. Overall, Eurostar represents more than 50% of Channel Tunnel crossings. Eurostar welcomes the Commission’s initiative and calls for the implementation of the ICAO Digital Travel Credentials (DTC) standard by Member States’ authorities as soon as possible. Our detailed feedback is attached.
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Response to Regulation on train drivers’ certification

8 Feb 2022

As an international operator crossing 3 borders and using 5 different networks, Eurostar's experience of the Train Driver Licence Directive (TDLD) is mixed. We would like to provide the following first elements of feedback. Although the framework from the TDLD provides helpful elements of standardisation, we perceive the current arrangements as excessively bureaucratic. Different national registers kept in different formats by national safety authorities (NSAs) need to be maintained along with the railway undertakings own registers. The current process for medical and psychometric accreditation of providers by NSAs is not conducive to producing a competitive and varied list of suppliers with also variation in application of the standards form one member state to another. The current language requirements of demonstrating a written B1 level are too onerous and not adapted to international railway operation. Finally, the management of the professional elements of competency are very administrative and very resource hungry. In terms of our first assessment of the proposed scenarios, it does not seem clear to Eurostar that any of the proposed scenarios would alleviate the issues encountered with the current process. Beyond governance changes, we are concerned that the implementation of any of the policy options could result in additional administrative burdens and as such additional costs.
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Response to Amendment of Directive (EU) 2016/798 on railway safety as regards the application of safety rules in the Channel Tunnel

29 Sept 2020

Eurostar welcomes the Commission’s proposals to seek to maintain a unified regulatory and safety regime under the Channel Tunnel after 31 December. Eurostar's detailed feedback is attached.
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Response to Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy

29 Jul 2020

Eurostar fully supports the European Green Deal’s key objective to deliver a 90% reduction in transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Reinforcing rail’s central role in a smart and sustainable mobility system is essential. In that regard, the development of cross-border, high-speed rail services that offer a low carbon solution for long distance travel have a particular role to play. To deliver on this ambition, bold measures need to address operational complexity, high costs and the lack of level playing field between different transport modes. In view of the upcoming EUSSSM, Eurostar, operating purely international rail passenger transport services for 25 years, would like to suggest the following four proposals: 1. Set an EU numerical target for the modal share of passengers transported by rail over long distances by 2030 and 2050 2. Address international passenger rail’s limited capacity and operational complexity 3. Improve the affordability of international rail services 4. Enforce tax/price incentives and CSR standards that promote sustainable mobility Please find attached Eurostar's contribution in full length.
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