Deutsche Bahn (DB) is to start rail services from London St Pancras International in December 2013.
The initial plans of the German national rail network is to run three services a day to Brussels.
From there the train will divide with one section going on to Brussels and Amsterdam via Rotterdam and the other to Cologne and Frankfurt.
The plan was unveiled to executives in the British rail industry at a briefing at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel earlier this month.
The briefing was given by Oliver Schmidt, director of international sales UK, Ireland and Northern Europe at a business travel event organised by Capita.
DB will use its newly built ICE 3 (class 407) for the service which will reduce the travel time from London to Cologne and Amsterdam to under four hours and to Frankfurt to just over five.
DB submitted an application in July for fundamental approval for its ICE trains to use the Channel Tunnel the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC), the safety authority responsible for this.
The network said it was “optimistic” that it will be given clearance by the IGC this year.
The long expected move will break Eurostar’s monopoly on the Channel Tunnel passenger rail services.
Since passenger rail services in the EU were liberalised in 2010, industry observers have been expecting new services from London other than the ones which Eurostar runs to Paris and Brussels.
The completion of the high speed rail link between Brussels and Amsterdam in 2009 also made direct services more likely.
Currently passengers to the Dutch capital or to Cologne and Frankfurt have to change at Brussels onto the Thalys high speed service run by the French and Belgian rail networks, SNCF and SNCB.
There has long been speculation that DB would be among the first to start extras services.
In 2008 Oliver Ueck, the DB’s UK managing director, told ABTN: “Currently, DB has no plans to offer direct ICE [Inter City Express] connections from Germany to London.
“Nevertheless, the route to London is a very attractive one and will certainly play a role in the future, as infrastructure projects in both England and Belgium have the aim to further reduce journey times.”