London to Paris in just two hours

London to Paris in just two hours

Eurostar has unveiled a new state-of-the-art 200mph train. Passengers travelling between London and Paris will soon have their journey time cut by 15 minutes, after the company unveiled a fleet of new high-speed trains. By the end of next year, travellers will be able to make the 306-mile trip to Paris through the Channel Tunnel in just two hours, thanks to a 200mph state-of-the-art train. Built by German firm Siemens and capable of carrying 900 passengers, the e320 trains will replace the current coach Class 373/1 trains which run at up to 186mph.

But at the launch at St Pancras station earlier today, the company announced it was ordering a further seven new trains. The trains will go into service at the end of 2015. The launch comes on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the start of Eurostar services in November 1994. There were just two trains a day when the service started, while there are now between 15-17 daily services to Paris.
The original London to Paris journey time when Eurostar started was two hours and 50 minutes. That was cut to two hours and 35 minutes after the first section of high speed line was built in Kent in 1998, and then two hours and 15 min following completion of the high speed line in 2007. The new trains are described as being ‘inter-operable’, meaning they can run across diverse European signalling systems, and opening up the potential for a whole range of new direct services between the UK and European city centre destinations.