Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has confirmed that it will be developing a direct rail route between Switzerland and London. However, passengers looking to ride off to the British capital will have to wait a while before the service takes to the tracks.

SBB "pushing forward" with rail link between UK and Switzerland

As part of their annual conference, in which the public transport provider announced that it catered to a record 1,39 million passengers per day in 2024, SBB confirmed that it would be “pushing” forward with the project to connect Swiss cities and London by rail. “The SBB sees a growing demand in international passenger transport and is working intensively to expand cross-border connections,” they wrote in a statement.

SBB noted that in recent years, more people have become willing to travel longer distances with day and night trains. Faced with this demand, SBB CEO Vincent Ducrot told reporters that a direct rail link between London and either Zurich, Basel or Geneva would be an ideal project, given that the UK is the most popular flight route for Swiss airports.

Support for direct Swiss-UK rail service grows

In their newly published report on the rail link, SBB said that setting up the service would be “technically feasible, but challenging”. As it stands, the rail route is set to run from Zurich, Basel or Geneva via Dijon, Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Lille, before running through the channel tunnel to London St. Pancras station - it is unclear whether the train would stop in France. At its fastest, the journey would take six hours.

SBB’s announcement completes a wave of enthusiasm for a rail link between Switzerland and the UK. Last September, Transport Minister (SVP) Albert Rösti threw his full weight behind idea, noting that the benefits of such a route are “obvious”. In February 2025, St. Pancras station and its French equivalent Getlink signed an agreement to expand services through the Channel Tunnel, one of which was a new direct train to Zurich.

Swiss passengers will have to wait a while for direct trains to London

With the demand established and all parties in favour, what questions still need to be answered? Though SBB wants to run the route itself, Ducrot conceded that Europe is in the midst of a high-speed train shortage - SNCF in France, for example, is still waiting on 100 new TGVs to be delivered. 

The Swiss government also needs to sign an agreement with its French and British counterparts to make the route a reality - something Rösti hinted would occur this spring. Finally, and most crucially, SBB needs to create the passport and customs checkpoints required in Zurich, Basel or Geneva to make rail travel between Switzerland and the UK possible.

This remains the most contentious step, with Ducrot unable to confirm which stations will be converted first. As a result, while they are continuing to work on the project, SBB said that the first trains between Switzerland and the United Kingdom would begin in “the 2030s at the earliest”.

Thumb image credit: Lucian Bodnar / Shutterstock.com