In a move that will surprise absolutely no one who has ever waited for a delayed Eurostar, Virgin has been granted track access by the UK's Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to run up to 20 daily return services through the Channel Tunnel from 1 October 2030 to 31 December 2040. This is a significant step in breaking Eurostar's monopoly on passenger services, which has been going strong since the tunnel opened in 1994 - a solid three decades of "you'll get there when you get there."

The ORR, which clearly enjoys a bit of competition, called it "a significant step forward." But before you start packing your bags for a Virgin voyage, note the fine print: Virgin still has to secure rolling stock and get safety approvals from UK and EU authorities. Also, the approval only covers the track from London St Pancras to the Channel Tunnel at Dover - so they still need to figure out the whole "Europe" part of the journey.

Martin Jones, the ORR's deputy director of access and international, said: "This is an important next step in bringing competition and growth to the market for international rail services." He added, with a straight face, that there's "still more work to do."

Virgin, not one to miss a PR opportunity, said its plans are "moving at pace" and that they're bringing their "award-winning customer experience" to the Channel Tunnel. They plan to buy 12 high-speed trains from Alstom to make this dream a reality. Meanwhile, Eurostar is playing it cool, saying they confirm "the huge potential for growth" and are focusing on their own ambitious plans, like carrying 30 million passengers a year.

But wait, there's more: Italy's FS Italiane Group, through its subsidiary Trenitalia France, also wants a piece of the action. So soon we might have a proper European rail war on our hands. The ORR says increased competition will provide "significant benefits" for passengers - which, in rail terms, probably means prices might drop from "mortgage" to "merely extortionate."

Last year, Virgin got a boost when the ORR approved its application to share the Temple Mills depot in east London with Eurostar - the only UK depot that can accommodate the larger continental trains. So the pieces are falling into place. Now we just wait until 2030 to see if Virgin can actually deliver, or if this is just another case of "the train is delayed due to a points failure at reality."