pstils

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.