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Eurostar is a train service that connects London with Paris and Brussels. Trains cross the English Channel through the Channel Tunnel. The French and Belgian sections of the route, and part of the British section, use high-speed rail line.The journey time from London to Paris is currently 2 hours 35 minutes; London to Brussels is 2 hours 20 minutes. These times will be cut by 20 minutes on completion of the British section of high-speed line in 2007 (see Channel Tunnel Rail Link).
In addition to the three destination cities, some Eurostar services currently stop en route at Ashford in Kent and Lille in northern France. From 2007 all Eurostar trains will be routed to the new London terminus at St Pancras. (The company had intended to retain some services to the existing Waterloo terminal, but this was ruled out on cost grounds.) Some trains will additionally serve a new station at Stratford in east London.
Eurostar, which began services in November 1994 , is a joint venture between Belgian, French and British railway companies. The Eurostar service has established a dominant share of the market for travellers on the routes it serves - 68% for London-Paris and 63% for London-Brussels as of November 2004. The company points out that these passengers represent a potential saving of 393,000 carbon-producing short-haul flights.
1 Additional information
- The trains themselves are 400 metres long, weigh 800 tonnes and carry 750 passengers. They are classifed as Class 373 units, and were constructed by GEC-Alsthom (now Alstom). They can run on third railA third rail is a method of providing electricity to power a railroad, typically a mass transit system. Well-known examples of rail transit systems utilizing a third rail include the New York City subway system, the Los Angeles and Washington, D. Metro sy and various catenaryIn mathematics, the catenary is the shape of a hanging flexible chain or cable when supported at its ends and acted upon by a uniform gravitational force (its own weight). The chain is almost vertical near the points of suspension because this part of the voltages, achieving a maximum in-service speed of 300 km/h when collecting current from the overhead catenary. They are essentially modified TGVThe TGV is France's train a grande vitesse literally " high-speed train". Developed and operated by SNCF, the French national railway company, it connects Paris to cities in France and in some other neighbouring countries, such as Belgium, Germany and Swi sets. In July 20032003 : January February March April May June July August September October November December A timeline of events in the news for July, 2003. See also Afghanistan timeline July 2003 Dodgy Dossier Columbia investigation EU enlargement Hong Kong Basic Law M a Eurostar train set a new UK rail speed record of 334.7 km/h during safety testing on the first section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
- The border between France and the UK is in the middle of the tunnel. On entering the UK, British Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) staff may be seen on the train, although immigration formalities are carried out at the station of departure.
- Eurostar also run services to Disneyland Paris, to AvignonThis article is about the city in France, for the Municipality in Quebec, see Avignon Regional County Municipality, Quebec. Avignon (pronounced [avin^O~] in SAMPA, Provencal: Avignoun is a commune in southern France with some 88,300 inhabitants in the cit in summer, and - in the skiing season - to Bourg St. Maurice , Aime la Plagne and MoutiersThere are communes that have the name Moutiers and Les Moutiers in France: Moutiers, in the Eure-et-Loir departement Moutiers, in the Ille-et-Vilaine departement Moutiers, in the Meurthe-et-Moselle departement Related Moutiers, in the Savoie departement M in the French AlpsThe Alps is the collective name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria in the east, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany, through to France in the west. The highest mountain in the Alps is the Mon. It was originally intended to run direct services to Paris and Brussels from places in the United Kingdom other than London. This has not happened and some of the trains intended for those services are now operated by the GNER ( Great North Eastern Railway) entirely within the UK, on the East Coast Main Line from London's King's Cross railway station to Leeds. Sleeper trains constructed for the international service were also never put into service, and the trains were sold to VIA Rail in Canada who have branded them as Renaissance Cars [1].
- Italian high-speed direct trains run by Trenitalia on RFI tracks are also called Eurostar. They use ETR-500 material. These have no connection with the trains running through the Channel Tunnel – to distinguish the two services, the Italian trains are sometimes referred to as Eurostar Italia .
- Eurotunnel is the company that built and runs the Channel Tunnel, and is a completely separate entity.
