I live near Kings Cross-station the site for the international Eurostar terminal, succeeding Waterloo station its temporary site. So I decided to write a piece concerning the project and its service. There are 3 main operations:
1. Eurotunnel who are the operators who control the trains. 2. Le Shuttle the name of the train service between Folkestone & Calais. 3. Eurostar the train service between London & Paris - Brussels.
I tried the journey from Waterloo to Brussels and will be able to relate this experience to you. Before then some history and background to help you make your decision as to whether to travel and if yes how to make it more enjoyable.
***THE PRODUCT***
From the introduction you can see the package falls into 3 distinct products. The main stations for the package are Waterloo, Ashford/Kent and being developed Kings Cross, Stratford on this side of the tunnel and Paris, Lille, Brussels on the continental side.
A LITTLE HISTORY:
1802 - French engineer A. Mathieu with the 1st ever design for a tunnel followed closely by and English man, H. Mottray. 1830 - Steam trains and British rail network, by the mid 19 century a French engineer T de Gamond had produced another plan. 1880 - 1st attempt by Beaumont & English at a boring machine. 1957 - 16th July Channel Tunnel Study Group formed who proposed a twin bore tunnel with an additional service tunnel in 1960. 1973 - project formally launched by Edward Heath & President Pompidou. 1985 - invitation to tender. 1986 - (1960 proposal accepted) formation of Eurotunnel group. 1987 - boring begins. 1994 - tunnel opened and 1st international freight train through.
SOME FURTHER FACTS:
The Eurotunnel passenger train takes about 35 minutes from Folkestone to Calais. The new channel tunnel link from Dagenham (near the Thames) to Kings Cross railway lands in a tunnel for 19km (12 miles) via Stratford which will become an International railway station. New stations at Ebbsfleet between Gravesend & Swanscombe in north Kent, London St Pancras, Stratford. Ashford trains from Waterloo to Lille, Brussels & Paris. The Eurostar service between London and Ashford in Kent, Paris, Brussels, Lille (Fr), Disney Land resort, Calais - Frethun.
***THE EXPERIENCE***
I took the Eurostar through the Chunnel in the late 1990's from Waterloo to Brussels return starting very early in the morning and returning close to midnight. I found the seats rather cramped, but probably because of the times of travel the carriages were not too crowded hence I could move around. The buffet bar served expensive but palatable snacks and the service was in English. Passport checks at Waterloo before boarding and onboard on return were re assuring. The journey to the tunnel took sometime and the train ran noticeably faster on the French/Belgium side. The tunnel was over quickly and quite frankly rather like any other tunnel, certainly it added very little in discomfort to the journey (excepting the lack of outside to stare at). Even in my forties the concept of being able to get on a train in 1 country and alight in a foreign speaking one had some fascination. Having travelled by boat the convenience of the train was evident, even by plane station to station; city to city is far better economy. Since travelling I have only heard of 1 incident concerning tunnel safety where passengers had to be evacuated. Since problems in the UK capital recently I wonder how long it will be before another occurs. I'm completing this after a walk around the building of the new international terminal at Kings X (photo at end). Stratford is developing remarkably quickly and links to a great many other parts of London via the Docklands light railway and the Jubilee extension. This might be a better station for travellers to alight.
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