Eurostar

By Arnav Mishra Chief-In-Editor 1/4/22

Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service connecting the United Kingdom with France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The London terminus is St Pancras International; the other British calling points are Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International in Kent. Intermediate calling points in France are Calais-Fréthun and Lille-Europe,  with trains to Paris terminating at Gare du Nord. 

Trains to Belgium and the Netherlands serve Midi/Zuid station in Brussels and Rotterdam Centraal, before terminating at Amsterdam Centraal. In France there are direct services from London to Disneyland Paris and seasonal direct services to south France (Lyon, Avignon and Marseille) in summer, and to the French Alps in winter.

The history of Eurostar can be traced to 1986 when a proposal for a rail tunnel to provide a cross-channel link between the UK and France.

 A previous attempt to construct a tunnel between the two nations had begun in 1974, but was quickly aborted. Construction began in a fresh new way in 1988. Eurotunnel was allotted to manage and own the tunnel, which was finished in 1993, the official opening taking place on 6 May 1994.

In addition to the tunnel's shuttle trains carrying cars and lorries between Folkstone and Calais, the tunnel opened up the possibility of through passenger and freight train services between places further afield. 

British Rail and SNCF contracted with Eurotunnel to use half the tunnel's capacity for this purpose. In 1987, Britain, France and Belgium set up an International Project Group to specify  a train to provide an international high-speed passenger service through the tunnel. 

France had been operating high-speed TGV services  since 1981, and had begun construction of a new high-speed line between Paris and the Channel Tunnel, LGV Nord; French TGV technology  was chosen as the basis for the new trains. 

For the trains, they were made in France with some British help. The grand order for the trains was placed in December 1989. After 4 years, On 20 June 1993, the first Eurostar test train travel.

On 14 November 1994, Eurostar services began running from Waterloo International station in London, to Gare du Nord in Paris, and Brussels-South railway station in Brussels. 

The original proposals for Eurostar included direct services to Paris and Brussels from cities north of London: Manchester via Birmingham on the West Coast Main Line and on the East Coast Main Line Leeds and Glasgow via Edinburgh, Newcastle and York. Seven 14-coach "North of London" Eurostar trains for these Regional Eurostar services were built, but these services never came to reality.

 Predicted journey times of almost nine hours for Glasgow to Paris at the time of growth of low-cost air travel during the 1990s made the plans commercially unviable against the cheaper and quicker airlines. 

Eurostar offers up to fifteen weekday London – Paris services (nineteen on Fridays) including nine non-stop (thirteen on Fridays). There are also nine (ten on Friday) London–Brussels services, with two running non-stop (continuing to Amsterdam) and a further two calling at Lille only. One service daily operates to Amsterdam via Brussels and Rotterdam also calling at Lille. 

In addition, there is a return trip from London to Marne-la-Vallée - Chessy for Disneyland Paris, which runs 4 times a week with increased frequency during school holidays. There are also seasonal services: an up-to-4-times-a-week service to Marseille via Lyon and Avignon in the summer; and, in the winter, "Snow trains", aimed at skiers, to Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Aime-la-Plagne and Moûtiers in the Alps; these run twice-weekly, one overnight and one during the daytime.

The Fares of the eurostar are the rock bottom fares, add this with time efficiency, this is what makes it popular. Another option is the First Class the best way for families and businessmen In June 2009 it was announced that one-way single fares would be available at £31 at the cheapest.

 Competition between Eurostar and airline services was a large factor in ticket prices being reduced from the initial levels.[Business Premier fares also slightly undercut air fares on similar routes, targeted at regular business travelers. In 2009, Eurostar greatly increased its budget ticket availability to help maintain and grow its dominant market share. The Eurostar ticketing system is very complex, being distributed through no fewer than 48 individual sales systems.

1. Approximately 1,000 passengers were trapped in darkness for several hours inside two Eurostar trains on the night of 19/20 February 1996. The trains stopped inside the tunnels due to electronic failures caused by snow and ice. Questions were raised at the time about the ability of the train and tunnel electronics to withstand the mix of snow, salt and ice which collect in the tunnels during periods of extreme cold.

1. More incidents

2. On 17 October 2011 a man fell from the 17:04 service from London to Brussels as it passed through Westenhanger and Cheriton in Folkestone, near the entry to the Channel Tunnel. The individual was an Albanian who had been refused entry to the United Kingdom and was voluntarily returning to Brussels. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The line was closed for several hours following the incident. The train itself returned north to Ashford International, where passengers were transferred to a Eurostar service operating from Marne-la-Vallée to London 

3. On 23 September 2009 an overhead power line dropped on to a Class 373 train arriving at St Pancras station, activating a circuit breaker and delaying eleven other trains. Two days later, on 25 September 2009, electrical power via the overhead lines was lost on a section of high-speed line outside Lille, delaying passengers on two evening Eurostar-operated services