Eurostar targets Paris-London train speed record

Eurostar targets Paris-London train speed record
(Reuters) / 4 September 2007

PARIS - Eurostar plans to set a Paris to London rail speed record on Tuesday on the first train to use UK’s long-awaited high speed track at over 186 miles (299.3 km) per hour.

The service carrying journalists and officials from Paris will make its inaugural run down 68 miles of British track known as High Speed 1, arriving for the first time in London’s St Pancras International station rather than the existing Waterloo terminus.

‘We want to establish a record today... to see just how quickly we can get from Paris to London,’ Eurostar Chief Executive Richard Brown said over the intercom as the train left Paris Gare du Nord.

The official switch to St Pancras takes place on Nov. 14, and the station will eventually link with the site of the 2012 Olympics at Stratford in east London.

The journey time will be cut from the usual 2 hours 35 minutes to 2 hours 15 minutes on the new route.

Brown said food trolleys had been stripped out and the train was running half-full to save weight on its record attempt. Within 20 minutes of leaving, the train had clocked 192 miles an hour, according to the GPS navigating device of one journalist on board.

Eurostar carried its first passengers in 1994 after the delayed opening of the $15 billion Channel Tunnel.

But while trains have cruised swiftly across France on high speed track at up to 186 miles per hour, they have been forced to throttle back on the British side where they mingle with commuter services heading in and out of London.

‘The High Speed 1 timetable will for the first time enable UK business travellers to reach the centres of Paris and Brussels before 9 a.m., ready for a full day’s work,’ Brown told people at a reception in Paris late on Monday.

‘Leisure passengers will benefit from later evening departures, allowing them to stay later on their visits,’ he added.

Eurostar’s faster service arrives at a time of booming demand for rail travel in Britain after a series of foiled terrorist attacks have led to tighter security and delays at UK airports.

Eurostar also says it has been helped by people switching from plane to train due to concerns about the environment.

Environmental statistics put the CO2 impact of aviation anywhere between four and 10 times that of rail on short-haul journeys.

‘Eurostar will offset CO2 emissions that it cannot eliminate ... making it the first train company in the world to offer carbon neutral journeys,’ said Brown.

Eurostar services are handled by France’s SNCF railway and Belgium’s SNCB on their own territory.

On the British side this is done by the ICRR consortium, comprising National Express Plc, SNCF, SNCB and British Airways Plc