BRITAIN:Eurostar set a new Paris to London rail speed record of just over two hours yesterday with the first train to use Britain's long-awaited high-speed track reaching speeds of around 320km/h (about 199 miles) per hour.
The service from Paris made its inaugural run down 109km 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. The journey time was 2 hours, 3 minutes and 39 seconds, compared with the usual 2 hours and 35 minutes to Waterloo. "I don't think that will be beaten, as we had the line to ourselves," train-driver Neil Meare (52) told reporters on arrival.
The normal journey time from Paris to St Pancras will be 2 hours and 15 minutes. The official switch to St Pancras takes place on November 14th and the station will eventually link with the site of the 2012 Olympics at Stratford in east London. Eurostar stripped out food trolleys and ran the train half-empty to save weight on its record attempt. Previously, while trains have cruised across France on high-speed track at up to 299km/h, they have been forced to throttle back on the British side, where they mingle with commuter services.
"The High Speed 1 timetable will for the first time enable UK business travellers to reach the centres of Paris and Brussels before 9am," Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown said.