The Virgin Group aims to collect 900 million US dollars for the Bail service offer, says Company

From Rishabh Jaiswal

(Reuters) -British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group aims to collect £ 700 million (900 million US dollars) in order to finance his plan for the start of Cross -Channel railway services in order to compete with Eurostar, the company said on Sunday.

Virgin, who used to do Intercity Train services in Great Britain, plans to start services that London would combine with Paris and Brussels. It would also extend to Amsterdam in the future.

The Virgin Group intends to raise £ 300 million and £ 400 million, said the Reuters company and confirmed a report in Financial Times, which was the first to report on the news.

It is also planned to be a cornerstone investor into the project.

Virgin’s plans are for a high frequency service that would be the first direct rival of the 30-year-old network of Eurostar and will start as soon as in 2029.

“The cross-channel route is ripe for changes and would benefit from the competition,” said a spokesman in a statement given by email.

“While Virgin is not yet obliged to start a service, we are looking for like -minded partners to invest together with Virgin, and we look forward to the progress made so far,” said the company.

The FT announced Eurostar that she welcomed the development of rail transport services in Europe, and added that “the competition in the high-speed rail sector is another example of the growing demand for rail transport in Europe”.

Eurostar did not immediately answer a Reuters request for comments.

($ 1 = 0.7740 pounds)

(Reporting of Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editor of William Mallard, Christopher Cushing and Tomasz Janowski)