An Eurostar train at Gare du Nord train station in Paris, France
Since the pandemic began, travel between France and the U.K. has plummeted and Eurostar is in trouble. The question that is causing even more concern on both sides of the Channel is about who should bail it out.
Eurostar runs the rail services under the Channel Tunnel between London, Paris and Brussels. Reuters reported that the French state is ready to help, after a top French executive at Eurostar reported that the rail company was in serious trouble–passenger numbers have fallen by 95% since March 2020 and there is currently only one train per day running from Paris to London (when there used to be two every hour at peak). In 2019, the trains carried 11 million passengers between major EU capitals.
Christophe Fanichet, senior executive for SNCF, France’s state railway company and which is a majority shareholder of Eurostar is reported to have said that he “is very worried about Eurostar”, as reported by The Local. "The company is in a critical state, I'd even say very critical," added Fanichet.
France, who owns a large stake in the company, has already provided €200m ($243 million) for the operator. The Telegraph reported that French transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari spoke about he was in discussions with his UK counterpart Grant Shapps about a bailout.
The company is based in London and one of the problems in securing money was explained by Fanichet–the British government see it as French, and the French see it as being British.
SNCF owns 55%, 30% is owned by an institutional Canadian fund manager, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ). 10% is owned by Britain-based fund Hermes Infrastructure, and 5% by the Belgian railway SNCB. Britain used to own more but sold its stake to the French under Prime minister David Cameron in 2015 for £750 million ($1 billion). There are calls in the U.K. for it to be bailed out by its backers and not the U.K. taxpayer.
Eurostar had been in the process of expanding, running direct trains from London to the Alps, the south of France and Amsterdam but in November, Eurostar’s CEO Jacques Damas wrote in The Independent that “there is a risk that this iconic service will be left to fail, threatening jobs, connectivity and reversing the progress to reduce travel emissions.”
Damas argued the point that post-Brexit, Eurostar will become more crucial to the U.K. than ever before, in providing a high-speed link to the EU. Damas also highlighted the considerable environmental benefits from keeping Eurostar running–a Eurostar journey uses up to 90% less carbon per passenger than an equivalent short-haul flight. The concern would be that without Eurostar, people would have to fly instead.
Eurostar is not a franchised rail operator in the U.K. and so it is not eligible for the government support schemes for domestic rail or airlines. As reported by The New York Times, even with the rollout of a vaccination, rail travel is still not expected to rebound until 2023 or 2024.
According to The Telegraph, sources say that the company will run out of money in months, if not weeks.
Quarantine is required for anyone currently arriving from France to the U.K. and for its part, France announced Thursday that it requires U.K. arrivals to self-isolate for 7 days, finishing with a Covid-19 test.