Eurostar will finally have a real, cheaper, rival

If you’ve taken a Eurostar train from St Pancras post-Brexit, you may have contended with high ticket prices, queues and an overcrowded terminal.

Since the UK sold its stake in the operator in 2015, there is only really one definite route to improving the experience of long-distance rail travel through the Channel Tunnel: competition.

We have long known there is adequate capacity on the high-speed line between the tunnel and London, and plans are ongoing to speed up the movement of passengers through London St Pancras station . Depot space to maintain a fleet of trains to rival Eurostar was the final piece of the jigsaw.

Today, that puzzle is solved: space at Temple Mills depot in East London has been allocated to Virgin Trains . Eurostar – which had said the depot where it ma