REVISED (19/10/03) TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE OPENING OF THE FIRST SECTION OF HIGH SPEED LINE IN KENT.

With the first section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) open (since 28th September), this seems like as good a time as any to take stock, as I’ve now been to Brussels three times and Lille twice (yesterday being the last time. We went there for lunch at ‘À L’Huitrière’* – €550 for four! Decadent? Moi?).

Sorry, Paris lovers, you can take the place and stick it ‘where the sun don’t shine’. If I wanted to get insulted and generally sh*t on, I could stay in London, where at least I’m somewhat more fluent in the local language.

(Personally, if anyone is that desperate to get into Britain, bearing in mind that on the Kent side they’ll be hovering dangerously close to a 750 volt electric rail, I think we should award them with immediate citizenship, and exile a few Britons who don’t deserve to live here (and maybe Mr. M. Al-Fayed while we’re at it.).

Most of my trips on the Eurostar have been in 2nd class, usually as part of some two-for-one offer, resulting in paying about £49 return. The Lille trips were a treat though and we pushed ‘le bateau’ out and paid double for the 1st class upgrade. To be honest, the major benefit is the increase in elbowroom that comes from having only three seats across ways. Seats WILL recline but only by reducing legroom. Food in first class is an enigma. Yes, it’s better than that served in the economy seats of a plane, but, no, it’s not ‘proper’ restaurant car quality. At least it all comes served separately with METAL cutlery and complimentary half-bottles of passable wine. My advice to anyone going 2nd class would be ‘take yer own tucker’. The Eurostar buffet cars would not be out of place on one of our own expresses, with ALL that that implies, and they’re pricey too.

The only London Terminus at the moment is London (Waterloo). St. Pancras is intended to become the ‘permanent’ home, once the entire high-speed link, not just the Kent section, comes to fruition. I put the word permanent in parentheses because even the first attempt to build a new train-shed is only due to be temporary as a major reconfiguration of St. Pancras’ main and magnificent arched area is taking place. I’m not entirely sure of the fate of Waterloo after that – it may stay as an alternative arrival point. I hardly think that my local ‘Hounslow Line’ trains will start using it – I’m not that lucky, although Waterloo IS desperately short of peak-hour platform capacity.

Ashford (Kent) is the only other UK stopping place at the moment, and is well served by all the usual chains of traveller’s hotels with shuttle buses/arrangements with minicab companies to and from the station. The station also has considerable covered car-parking capacity, and is easy to locate from the M20, provided that you don’t follow the first Ashford sign on your way down from London.

*Essentially, Thalys trains are French TGV trains modified to cater for a wealth of different current supplies and signalling systems – yes, the EEC hasn’t standardised everything y’know. These are also known as the PBKA trains, i.e. linking Paris, Brussels, Köln (Cologne) and Amsterdam.

Brussels - 2h
Paris - 2h30m
Lille - 1h40m
Calais -1h10m

Being essentially scaled down TGVs built by GEC-Alsthom (a company now having to be bailed out by the French government, with a loss of jobs, many in Britain, regrettably), to fit into Britain’s higher platforms and lower bridges (and how unfortunate a combination is that?), the Eurostars are also rather versatile, being able to pick up line current from a 750 volt DC ‘third rail’ as currently (ouch! pun intended) used in London and Kent, the essentially French overhead wire supply of 25,000 volts AC, which by the way is the same as for our own East & West Coast Main Lines and on the new Kent CTRL line, and the Belgian overhead wires operating on 3,000 volts DC.

To cater for different platform arrangements, the doors have hidden steps, which allow for a variety of platform heights, ranging from none at all (i.e. track level) to being hardly needed at all (in Britain).

A normal length Eurostar has, as well as buffet cars, a further 16 passenger coaches, with some 794 seats, about 1/3rd of which are 1st class. Some shorter ‘regional’ Eurostars were also built. These were supposed to be serving centres like Glasgow and Edinburgh by now, but the company in its wisdom has decided to concentrate on the shorter journeys where they compete on a city centre-to-centre basis with the plane. They have however found a use, as anyone travelling on a London-Leeds train may have noticed lately. GNER have hired some spare Eurostar capacity to augment their existing train sets.

When in London, the trains are ‘garaged’ and serviced at a new-build site next to the Paddington main line at Wormwood Scrubs, known exotically as North Pole Depot, and serve to taunt all who travel past as a stark reminder that you can’t get on one of these at Paddington!

It’s not rocket science, it doesn’t tilt or float on a cushion of magnetic levitation – it’s just a train that goes quickly and smoothly in more or less straight lines. What it does do, it does well, and with a further 20 minutes now shaved off the time from Central London to Central Paris, the airlines must be getting a bit worried. There’s only the briefest of check-ins (you are advised to get there 30 minutes before departure), followed by the usual security checks and immigration procedures and you’re on the train. Baggage reclaim? No such thing – just grab your own from the end of the coach. Personally I was apprehensive at first about being underwater for all that time, but I just don’t give it a second thought now.

To their consternation, every single one flew straight through the glass, potentially taking the driver’s head with it, smashing on the bulkhead behind. Then someone remembered to defrost the next batch……….