Eurostar sets Brussels-London record

[John Ashworth]

Eurostar sets new rail speed record
Thu Sep 20, 2007 1:45pm BST

LONDON (Reuters) - Eurostar set a new Brussels to London rail speed record of 1 hour and 43 minutes on Thursday, travelling at 300 kilometres per hour (186 mph) on the long-awaited UK high speed track to London's St Pancras station.

The trip, which shaved about 30 minutes off the normal journey time to London, followed a similar inaugural run from Paris to London at the start of this month.

Then the Eurostar topped 320 kilometres per hour to complete the voyage in just over two hours.

"Today's journey puts London and Brussels firmly within the two hour club," said Chief Executive Richard Brown.

Shaving minutes off the journey is vital to Eurostar as it competes with airlines for passengers across the channel.

"The new timetable will for the first time enable UK business travellers to reach the centre of Brussels before 9 am, and Belgian travellers to reach central London by 8 am, ready for a full day's work," said Eurostar.

The official switch to St Pancras station in the north of London from Waterloo in the south takes place on November 14, and the station will eventually link with the site of the 2012 Olympics at Stratford in east London.

Eurostar carried its first passengers in 1994 after the delayed opening of the $15 billion Channel Tunnel.

But while trains have cruised across France on high speed track at up to 300 kilometres per hour, they have been forced to throttle back on the British side where they mingle with commuter services heading in and out of London.

Eurostar services are handled by France's SNCF railway and Belgium's SNCB on their own territory.

On the British side this is done by the ICRR consortium, comprising National Express Plc, SNCF, SNCB and British Airways Plc.

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.