FYI
Eurostar announced that as of November 14th 2007, the train stop in London will switch from Waterloo station to St Pancras International. They say that this station is more convenient as it is served by 6 subway lines and several train lines. The move from Waterloo will be done overnight.
At the same time, the travel time from Paris to London will be reduced from 2hours and forty minutes to 2 hours and 15 minutes, as fast speed rails will be installed on the English side.
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And....according to Eurostar%26#39;s press releases....the newly restored Saint Pancras terminus will feature, %26quot;..the longest champagne bar in Europe..%26quot;....So my question is, %26quot;..Where is %26#39;.the longest champagne bar in the World..%26#39; located?..%26quot;.
On a more ominous note--
%26quot;..But passengers are likely to have to pay more for their tickets. Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown said today that he expected there would be “some modest increases in average fares” although it would not be a dramatic increase...%26quot;. Given what British railways officials seem to consider to be %26#39;..reasonable..%26#39; train fares, one can only wonder what Eurostar means by %26quot;..modest increases..%26quot;?
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There shouldn%26#39;t be that much of an increase, they have to compete with the airlines remember. St Pancras will be much more convenient for anybody coming from north of London, let%26#39;s just hope that we soon get the direct services to Paris and Brussels from Birmingham, Manchester etc that we were promised when the tunnel was built.
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It%26#39;s taken ten years (since the Channel Tunnel openned) to get the high speed main Eurostar ligne from Kent to north-London up to established standards......So how long do you suppose it will take for them to make it to Mancester at that rate?...My guess is that it won%26#39;t be much before King Willaim%26#39;s son is elevated to Prince of Wales.
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Well, ten years for the first half only, a mere 70 km from Folkestone! And 13 years after Eurotunnel was open the high speed track will be completed from the Channel to London. With this weird decision to make Eurostar arrive in St Pancras, a North London location, when the trains are coming from the South East... It%26#39;s as if, on the other end, the Eurostar were arriving at Paris%26#39;s gare Montparnasse.
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I think that some of the logic behid the station switch is to eventually connect Saint Pancras to a future extention of the Heathrow Express ligne. Waterloo simply wasn%26#39;t positioned conveniently enough.......Saint Pancras is also better situated, relative to London%26#39;s main east-west and north-south Tube lignes.
Either that or some of the British Eurostar directors have a week-end places in France, and were looking for a more convenient commute to the train station for week-end getaways. What%26#39;s several million £s more or less, to save a drive across London at rush hour on Friday?
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The main reason it%26#39;s taken so long is that unlike in France, planning permission for things like railways take time.
In the French system, the government decides where the railway should go, and then a path is bulldozed. There are very few considerations given to heritage, views and environment. Consider the original plan to bulldoze most of the Loire Valley vinyards............... It is thanks to the actions of one man (Gaston Huet) that the plan was changed and a tunnel was bored under the hills. Although the English always complain that %26quot;we should have railways like the French%26quot; the reality is that they wouldnt stand for the scar on the landscape.
The new line passes within 80 metres of my house. I will have an uninterrupted view of the trains as they pass. Luckily, I will be moving (builders allowing) to France before the trains start.
Isn%26#39;t the longest oyster bar in the world at Grand Central in New York?
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%26quot;In the French system, the government decides where the railway should go, and then a path is bulldozed.%26quot; That%26#39;s what you read in the British press but, believe me, there are many ways for local pressure groups to delay some %26quot;grands travaux%26quot;. In the case of the TGV Méditerranée, the %26quot;and then%26quot; lasted for ten years, thanks to an efficient combined resistance from bona fide environmentalists (thus preferring to see more trucks than tracks), but mostly NIMBYs and Paris big wigs who didn%26#39;t want to have their Provence secondary homes too close to the new line. The same motley crew delayed the Ile de Ré bridge by 15 years. As for the Grenoble-Sisteron motorway, it has been up in the air since the 80s. So, you see, NIMBYs do have efficient weapons to delay the bulldozers or send them home.
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I thought the idea of using Waterloo in the first place was just to upset the French ;-)
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