St Pancreas to Paris ('the city in a bubble') in 2x Hours

perhaps this thread would take off a little quicker if it had a link

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2385691.ece

i hadn't known it went east before going south, though i suppose it stands to reason, what with bloomsbury and holborn not being demolished recently to make way for the track.

to be honest I'm more excited about Lille in an hour and twenty minutes - I love that town and it's also so easy to get to beer heaven from there.

"Nigel Harris, managing editor of Rail Magazine, said he was thrilled to be among the first passengers to travel on the new high-speed line.

He said it would mean hundreds of thousands of people from north of London would be able to travel to Paris without facing the drag of travelling across London on bus, Tube or train to get to Waterloo."

WHAT ABOUT THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF SOUTH LONDONERS? LIKE ME? I USED TO BE ABLE TO FALL OUT OF BED AND INTO THE EUORSTAR.

THAT'S RIGHT, EUORSTAR

This is great, but Eurostar prices are still unreasonable.

ps. what's beer heaven? some place in Belgium?

What are they going to do with the international terminal at Waterloo? What kind of planning cock-up required building two brand new international train terminals in succeeding decades?

I think that, like that other white elephant, the Millennium Dome, it should become a music venue. Straight off the train and into the gig....perfect.

"Nigel Harris, managing editor of Rail Magazine, said he was thrilled to be among the first passengers to travel on the new high-speed line.

He said it would mean hundreds of thousands of people from north of London would be able to travel to Paris without facing the drag of travelling across London on bus, Tube or train to get to Waterloo."

WHAT ABOUT THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF SOUTH LONDONERS? LIKE ME? I USED TO BE ABLE TO FALL OUT OF BED AND INTO THE EUORSTAR.

Ledge OTM. You're a cunt, Harris.

The Waterloo terminal will now service the Isle of Wight via a $100 billion tunnel to be built between Cowes and Guildford.

:)

from a 2005 press release:

"Eurostar today welcomed the findings of the Government's report into the future use of the Waterloo International Terminal - Eurostar's London hub since 1994. The report recommends that the terminal be retained for rail use after Eurostar's move to St. Pancras in 2007 and transferred to domestic use.

The report identifies a potential boost for domestic passengers across Southern England as Eurostar's legacy creates additional station capacity and increased train pathways in South London."

I'm too claustrophobic to use this :(

ahaha unlucky.

i think this makes more sense than waterloo coz erm most of the country's trains come into north, rather than south london.\

there is even talk of a direct edinburgh-paris train.

xpost

stevem, how is a plane not claustrophobia-inducing?

There is no talk of direct trains from outside london. There were meant to be from a year after launch and until recently the paths were kept open for Edinburgh, leeds and manchester services. However these have now gone and Eurostar does not seem interested because of the cost of installing security zones at regional stations and the fact that the markets between regional cities and paris/brussels are not that large. (also there would be some gauging work to run the eurostar north of York)

There was also meant to be a Nightstar service from scotland to Paris/Brussels and London to Germany. These services never started and the carriages were sold to canada where they run between Toronto and Montreal.

There are open access paths on the new line but the barriers to entry on any service are high due to specialised safety requirements for the tunnel.

i'm hearing talk, actually.

Well, if the Thalys line (linking Paris to Brussels) is anything to go by, eventually the Eurostar should start linking cities in the south of France. There'd be a big competition from the low-cost airlines, but I'm thinking there'd def. be a market for people who just can't be bothered queuing in Luton airport or somesuch.

All the talk I have heard has been negative. Although The most positive talk has been on extending services to Amsterdam via the HSL Zuid although this requires fitting of two more signalling systems to Eurostar trains (ERMTS Level 2 and Dutch ATP).

Eurostar seems only interested in going to places it can reach in under 4 hours, which basically means Lyon (very congested line beyond Paris), Koln (Not sure of the Market) and Amsterdam.

One of the big draws of the Thalys is the Brussels-Avignon line (4 and a half hour), from London this would proabbly now take 5 1/2 hour, so maybe too long to compete with airlines.

stevem, how is a plane not claustrophobia-inducing?

they are but at least they're always moving and you're not stuck in a tunnel. it's not about rationalism (obv).

Ah, they are up in the air!

They do a saturday avignon (and bordeaux) service in the summer, but only once a week, and only really useful for the holiday traffic.

Don't get me wrong I would love some long distance services, there just doesn't seem to be any interest in providing them.

how long does the train take from St Pan to Stratford - 7 minutes or something i remember reading (same as from Liverpool St)

eurostar tickets are not expensive if you buy them well enough in advance!

Outward journey
London Waterloo Int to Paris Nord
Depart: Mon 5th Nov 2007 - 09:09
Arrive: Mon 5th Nov 2007 - 12:53
Duration: 02h44m Direct
Non flexible
£29.50

Return journey
Paris Nord to London Waterloo Int
Depart: Tue 13th Nov 2007 - 09:10
Arrive: Tue 13th Nov 2007 - 10:58
Duration: 02h48m Direct
Non flexible
£29.50

Total
£59.00

i would totally get the train to germany if it were possible. when i went in may i looked into it but the times were entirely unworkable - took a long time but that's not a prob, but there was one connecting service a day and it meant leaving london at a stupid time like 5.30pm or something. man i LOVE really long train journeys though...

they are but at least they're always moving and you're not stuck in a tunnel. it's not about rationalism

Obv. this is irrational but how do you deal with the tube then? Or do you avoid it as well?

I would have thought planes were more likely to make people more claustrophobic than trains, since there's absolutely no way of getting off it once you're in the air.

Worth looking on the german railways site rather than eurostar for most services as the eurostar site is rubbish for connecting services that are not in france. (also if you buy your tickets individually rather than connecting through they are often cheaper)

thank you! next time i will come and ask you about it, and everyone at work will think i am 1000x more nuts than they already did when i said i was taking the train to GLASGOW (wtf dudes it's on the same fucking island and that island is TINY) instead of flying

i avoid tube yes (xp x2)

I would have thought planes were more likely to make people more claustrophobic than trains, since there's absolutely no way of getting off it once you're in the air.

probably true for most people afraid of flying, which i was for a while but got better once i actually started doing it more often. it's fine as long as 'everything is going to plan' and not too long a flight.

man i LOVE really long train journeys though...

i used to and wish i still did because i'd seriously consider doing 16 days on the TSR (Moscow to Beijing) if so.

Uwaaaaaa I would really like to do that too! I heart long train journeys too...

Big time travel-lust here. Argh. Argh.

I really want to take the train across eurasia! A friend and I planned to do our return-from-japan next June/Sep by boat, TSR, hi-speed deutschebahn and eurostar but I fear this dream will never be a reality.

I took a train all the way from San Diego to Seattle once, well I suppose it was LA to Seattle really because I had to change trains there. That would have been better if I'd thought to bring food/drink with me. So many nasty microwaved pizza slices from the buffet car...

That was done for financial reasons rather than loving long train journeys though, I already had a railcard so it cost nothing.

u should definitely do that c sharp. i will go in opposite direction and wave you at halfway point.