the high speed 1 service first launched, an important step along the way to finalized the eurostar move to st pancras on 6 november 2007.
when did the high speed 1 service first launch, an important step along the way to finalized the eurostar move to st pancras?
6 november 2007
the channel tunnel rail link (ctrl), now called high speed 1, runs from st pancras railway station in london to the tunnel portal at folkestone in kent. it cost £5.8 billion. on 16 september 2003 the prime minister, tony blair, opened the first section of high speed 1, from folkestone to north kent. on 6 november 2007 the queen officially opened high speed 1 and st pancras international station, replacing the original slower link to waterloo international railway station. high speed 1 trains travel at up to , the journey from london to paris taking 2 hours 15 minutes, to brussels 1 hour 51 minutes.
channel tunnel
the eurostar service uses about 40% of the capacity of high speed 1, which in november 2007 became the company's route for all its services. eurostar trains are for international traffic only, passing along the high-speed line from london st pancras railway station to the channel tunnel, with the majority terminating at either paris gare du nord in france or brussels-south railway station in belgium. currently the trains operated by eurostar are the only ones to make full use of the high speeds on the line; a eurostar train was used to set a new british rail speed record of on 30 july 2003. prior to the formation of eurostar international limited, the british component of the eurostar grouping was owned by london and continental railways, which had also previously owned the high speed 1 infrastructure.
high speed 1