How do I get to Paris now? Eurostar (0870 518 6186, www.eurostar.com)
is moving home on November 14, from Waterloo to a shiny new home at St
Pancras station. Prices remain the same, with the cheapest return tickets to
Paris starting at £59, or £109 for Leisure Select (first class) weekend
returns.
What’s the point of the move? Speed, mainly. It will shave 20 minutes off the
journey time to Paris, thanks to high-speed track through east London and
Kent. This means the fastest trains will now make the trip in just 2hr 15min.
Wouldn’t it have been easier to expand Eurostar facilities at Waterloo?
No. St Pancras was chosen because it offers a greater concentration of
stations and train operators within a few minutes’ walk – there are seven
mainline train companies running into St Pancras, Kings Cross and Euston.
This means things are more efficient for excursions originating further
afield. Allowing for passengers to transfer from their arrival station in
London to St Pancras, and for Eurostar’s required 30-minute check in,
journey times from Birmingham to Paris will start at 4hr 45min, with prices
starting at £79 return; from Manchester, 5hr 30min, from £84; and from
Newcastle, 6hr, from £82.
Are there any other stops? Four trains a day will callat Ashford
International, and there’s a new station at Ebbsfleet (near the Bluewater
shopping centre, by junction 2 of the M25), which opens on November 19.
There arebus services to Ashfordand Ebbsfleet from local stations, or there
is parking within a short walk from either for £11.50 a day. Passengers
travelling in Business Premier get four days’ free parking.
How often do the trains run? There will be up to 17 services a day to Paris
from St Pancras, starting at about 5.30am. From November 14, it will be
possible to travel from 65 UK stations using a one-ticket service, with one
ticket covering your entire journey. For now, bookings must be made direct
with Eurostar; next year, the booking systems will change, allowing other
train operators to sell through tickets.
What about across Europe? There will also be up to 10 services a day to
Brussels (most stopping in Lille, for connections to the south of France)
and one daily train to Disneyland Paris. On top of that, there are
twice-weekly ski trains during the winter season – a night train (leaving
London on Friday evening, arriving Saturday morning) and a day train
(leaving London on Saturday morning, arriving in the Alps in the early
evening). They stop at three resorts: Moûtiers, Aime la Plagne (arrivals
only) and Bourg St Maurice. There’s also a direct Saturday service to
Avignon in the summer.
And that’s not all, is it? Oh, no. The grand plan is that, by 2010, there will
be a seven-country network of high-speed train links. It’s called Railteam (www.railteam.eu)
and includes Britain,France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and
Switzerland. Timetables will allow for good connections in Lille, Paris or
Brussels to stations across Europe, with the facility to hop on the next
train at no extra cost if you miss a connection.
