Eurostar sets Paris-London speed record

The Eurostar has set a new record for a train journey between Paris and London today when it used a new stretch of high speed rail line in the UK to clock up a time of 2 hours and 3 minutes from the Gare du Nord in Paris to St Pancras in London. It left Paris at 10.44 CET, arrived in London at 11.47 GMT and hit speeds of 200mph along the way.

Eurostar has been based at Waterloo station in London since it started service but this November will move its operations north to the renovated St Pancras International terminal next to Kings Cross station. When the Eurostar starts running from St Pancras the journey time to Paris is estimated to be 2 hours 15 minutes because a new stop at Ebbsfleet near Dartford will be included.

Eurostar and the budget airlines have had a bit of a bragging war recently over who can get people to Paris the quickest. With the time it takes to get to the airports, check in and get to the city centre at the other end I’d say the Eurostar will be the winner as both St Pancras and Gare du Nord are pretty central in their cities.