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That's stupid. Not as a goal, but Germany is never going to do this.

Not because "Germany" "doesn't want to", but because there is no space to put the rail as it is and every new attempt gets blocked by NIMBYs. We have this problem inside of the country as well. It's not like the space isn't there, it's just not going to get built because every little weak bit of resistance gets used to not build train tracks and to put more money into car infrastructure.

The result will be that you can totally go London-Berlin if you want. It's just going to take 36hours.

From London to Berlin In every disco I get in My heart is pumping for love Pumping for love

Where in Berlin are they going to find a spare platform they can install UK immigration control infrastructure around (of the sort they have in Paris/Brussels)? Given the long distance such a journey would cover, the demand would be lower than from a 3-hour Eurostar trip, meaning that taking a station platform and enough space for passport control booths just for a few passengers would be of dubious value.

I doubt this, but direct to Cologne would be good. It’s a route that eurostar currently offer, just with a change in Brussels, which can sometime be about 1.5 hours. Idk if passport control is feasible in Cologne, though. If so, 4hrs between London and Cologne is v. competitive with air.

It’s complicated with the passport control - it means the Cologne-Brussels bit is basically unusable as a journey in itself (ie people wanting to travel just that leg), so what I see happening is more something akin to what happened to the London-Amsterdam route when Amsterdam centraal was out of action regards passport control: on the return, everyone gets off in Brussels, schleps thorough passport control, and back on for Brussels-London. On the way out (London-Cologne), it’s can run direct, as everyone can just stay on the whole way, and non-passport-control passengers can get on for Brussels-Cologne, as at that point it’s just another train.