The fight that decides your cross-Channel fare is over a depot in east London, not the crossing. The tunnel uses only about half its train slots, but Temple Mills, the one British site that can maintain these oversized trains, had room for a single new tenant. Whoever got it runs the trains.
Where the three challengers actually stand:
- Virgin Trains has the depot slot: the regulator picked it in October 2025 as "more financially and operationally robust," targeting a 2030 launch on 12 new Alstom trains.
- Eurostar, the sole operator since 1994, has ordered up to 50 double-deckers for about 2 billion euros, first running around 2031.
- Gemini, this week's headline with a 59-pound Paris teaser, has a press release and no depot at all.
Nothing here is bookable before the end of the decade. Watch which trains run, not which fares get announced.
