The Eurostar - London

Eurostar is a great way to get to Paris or Brussels but its got less than a year at its present London location, Waterloo Station.
Waterloo’s one of the biggest railway stations in London, a few hundred yards behind the London Eye on the southern side of the River Thames, but from 14 November 2007 the Eurostar will begin using the redeveloped St Pancras Station, next to Kings Cross as its departure and arrival point in London.

St Pancras is the large red Gothic style building, built in the 19th century, that stands between Kings Cross Station and the British Library. It seems like they’ve been carrying out work on that place for years and years and only now are some of the protective fences and scaffold coming down.

St Pancras will be the London end of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), which will allow the Eurostar to get up to the speeds in England that it does in France. The current time from London to Paris is about 2hrs 35mins and this should cut it to about 2hrs 15mins, Brussels should be 1hr 50mins. The Eurostar’s been running since 1994 but when the trains went through the Channel Tunnel and reached England they had to slow down because the tracks weren’t designed for high speed trains. St Pancras has also had to have longer platforms built because the Eurostar trains in 2007 will be almost 400m long.

St Pancras should be a great place for passengers using the Eurostar, there are six Underground lines that connect there plus mainline trains into St Pancras itself, next door Kings Cross and Euston which is only a five minute walk away along the Euston Road. There’s also a lot more going on in the immediate St Pancras area in regards to eating, drinking, accomodation etc. It’s no picture postcard around the stations in the Kings Cross part of town but surrounding Waterloo Station seems to be a mishmash of 60s office blocks, walkways and ugly concrete buildings.

Waterloo Station itself is fine. Open, clean, plenty of shops, bars and places to eat, the Eurostar International terminal is in the northwest corner. If you walk through the arched entrance (above, right) its right in front of you on a lower level, there are escaltors to take you down.

I haven’t been on the Eurostar for a few years but the last time it was a very comfortable ride, smooth and quiet and it drops you right in the heart of Paris at Gard du Nord. When I went travel documents were only checked at the French end, that may have changed.