Swiss Federal Railways SBB is joining forces with French operator SNCF Voyageurs and Belgian national railway SNCB to extend an existing high-speed TGV INOUI service from Brussels and Strasbourg all the way to Basel, giving Swiss travellers a direct high-speed rail link to the Belgian capital for the first time, with onward connections to London via Lille.
The three rail operators announced on 12 June 2026 that the new service will enter a market testing phase from July 2027, operating as a round trip on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Extended Route Will Run Between Basel SBB And Bruxelles-Midi
The extended TGV INOUI will run between Basel SBB and Bruxelles-Midi, stopping at the same intermediate stations already served on the existing Brussels–Strasbourg route: Lille-Europe, Roissy Aéroport CDG TGV, Champagne-Ardenne TGV, Meuse TGV, Lorraine TGV and Strasbourg-Ville.
Northbound, the train departs Brussels at approximately 07:00, arriving in Basel at approximately 12:30. Southbound, it departs Basel at around 14:00 and arrives back in Brussels at around 19:00 — a journey of roughly five and a half hours in each direction.
Tickets will go on sale in spring 2027.
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The London Connection
Perhaps the most significant element of the announcement for Swiss travellers is not the Brussels connection itself, but what it unlocks beyond it. By changing trains at Lille-Europe, passengers can continue to London, arriving at approximately 20:00 British time — meaning a Basel–London journey entirely by rail, within a single day, becomes viable for the first time without routing through Paris.
SBB explicitly highlights that a connection in Lille is currently not available for travel between London and Switzerland, making this a genuinely new routing option.
Similarly, passengers continuing from Brussels can connect onwards to the Netherlands.
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London To Basel Train: SNCB And SBB Collaborate Too
The three operators describe the rationale as bringing together the “three dynamic markets” of Switzerland, France and Belgium with a single rail link. The service is framed explicitly as an alternative to flying — a positioning that reflects growing commercial and political pressure on European railways to compete with short-haul aviation on cross-border routes.
The service builds on the existing TGV INOUI operation between Brussels and Strasbourg, already jointly operated by SNCF Voyageurs and SNCB. SBB’s involvement extends the route into Switzerland, adding Basel SBB as the southern terminus.
SNCF Voyageurs, founded in 2020 as the passenger transport arm of the SNCF Group, carries five million passengers daily on 15,000 trains across France and Europe. It operates the TGV INOUI brand alongside OUIGO, Eurostar and TGV Lyria, and generated revenue of €20.9 billion in 2025.
SNCB is Belgium’s national railway company, focused on rail as the primary sustainable mobility solution for travellers within Belgium and across its borders.
SBB needs little introduction to Swiss readers — the federal railway operates the backbone of Switzerland’s intercity and international rail network.
