FRANCE/UK: Eurostar sets Paris-London train speed record

Eurostar sets a Paris to London rail speed record, train runs half empty to save weight on its record attempt. Eurostar set a new Paris to London rail speed record of just over two hours on Tuesday (September 4) with the first train to use Britain's long-awaited high speed track at around 320 kilometres (about 199 miles) per hour. The service carrying journalists and officials from Paris made its inaugural run down 68 miles (109 km) of British track known as High Speed 1 and arrived for the first time at St Pancras International rather than the usual Waterloo terminus. Shaving minutes off the journey is vital to Eurostar as it competes with airlines for passengers across the channel. The journey time was 2 hours, 3 minutes and 39 seconds, compared with the usual 2 hours 35 minutes to Waterloo. Guillaume Pepy, Chairman of Eurostar, said: "Now Paris and London will be only 2 hours 15 away from each other, like Paris-Lyon, like Paris-Strasbourg. We can do the round-trip to London in half a day, the two capitals are closing in, that is amazing. Trains are back in Europe and gaining importance." 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. 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.

ITN Source | September 5, 2007

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