Eurostar is the high-speed rail service directly linking the United Kingdom to France and Belgium via the Channel Tunnel, also known as Chunnel. It opened in 1994 and set a new record on its inaugural journey via a new high-speed line in September.

The passenger train on the British side of the English Channel used its new main line to cut the total journey time to just over two hours (2 hrs. 3 min. 39 sec) — more than 30 minutes faster than the 2 hrs. 35 min. it took to travel between Paris and London's Waterloo International at the time, reports The Associated Press (via International Herald Tribune). The train moved at speeds of more than 200 mph (320 kph) in France and the 186 mph (300 kph) maximum on the British section.

Then, a little over two weeks later, Eurostar broke another record as it officially shortened the travel time from Brussels to London (1 hr. 43 min.), as reported at World Travel Guide. This may not be as fast as the train that speeds from Paris in a northeasterly direction, but for many riders the shorter travel time allows more time for business meetings or to see the sights.

Before this record, in July 2003, a Eurostar train shattered the speed record for the fastest-ever train in the U.K., when a Eurostar train reached 208 mph (334.7 kph) during safety testing on the first section of the channel tunnel rail link, according to the rail service's online timeline.

The high-speed train crosses the English Channel via the Chunnel. We might have thought this high-speed train would have been operating soon after the Chunnel opened in 1994; that is, until we realized the money required — £5.8 billion (US$11.8 billion) — and challenges that had to be overcome in England before the train could zoom along. For one, as U.K.'s The Observer notes, workers removed "530 million cubic feet of earth from 37 miles of tunnels through east London and Kent."

After its record-breaking inaugural journey in September, and since a permanent route switch on Nov. 14, Eurostar trains on the British side of the English Channel have been using a new 68-mile (110km) main line known as High Speed 1. They now arrive at St. Pancras instead of Waterloo, with the new high-speed line cutting times on the entire route by 20 min. to 2 hrs. 15 min.

Credit: Daily Mail (UK)

Although the distance from central London's recently refurbished St. Pancras Station to Folkestone, near the entrance to the Chunnel, is only 68 miles, the project required laying 310 miles of rail, five million sleepers and 185 miles of communications cables. Because much of the London region has been built up for centuries, the twin-bore tunnels pass under 2,600 properties, seven miles of surface railway, 12 existing tunnels — including four London Underground stations — and 600 gas, water and sewage pipelines. These rail lines must have wider curves than those required for conventional low-speed trains. (Source: AP)

During the 11 years during which engineers spent more than 100 million hours on the project, six boring machines at £10 million (US$20.34 million) wore out. The high-speed trains create rapid pressure changes in the tunnels so the engineers designed special vents to allow excess pressure to escape from the tunnels.

Laying track through a marsh presented another challenge, so engineers built a new track bed in the marsh. When the track nears the Thames River, it runs between the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge and the exit from the Dartford Tunnel beneath the river. Precise engineering saved the day because these two structures are so near to each other: clearance on either side of the new track is only about 29.5 inches (75 cm).

To bring the track under the Thames, a three-mile long tunnel was required. "The first problem was the water pressure in the highly fissured chalk bed under the Thames was as high as that under a column of water about 131 feet (40 meters) deep," The Observer notes. To make matters worse, the chalk is flecked with flint, one of the hardest substances."

In addition to all this, engineers "slid bridges" and moved 13 buildings and three major viaducts. In all, the rail line travels through 20 miles of tunnels and across 150 bridges and several viaducts.

To establish the Eurostar service, it was necessary to overcome significant rail network differences between the UK, France and Belgium. According to Eurostar.com:

European rail networks primarily focus on domestic services, employing different technologies, for example, in power supply and signalling [sic], as well as in commercial areas such as ticket distribution systems.

Eurostar has overcome all these obstacles successfully, operating safely and efficiently across the three territories.

The result, according to the rail's Web site: Compared with a few years ago, the fastest journey times from London to Paris have been cut from 2 hours 55 minutes to 2 hours 15 minutes, and to Brussels from 2 hours 40 minutes to 1 hour 51 minutes.

The British business is also keen on minimizing any adverse effects on the environment, so workers planted 1.2 million trees and 19 miles of hedgerow near the track. Others moved 100 tiny hazel dormice to new woodlands, built 78 artificial roosts for bats, eight new ponds for amphibians and a few artificial badger sets.

Last year, Eurostar commissioned independent research proving the rail service to be 10 times greener than aircraft on the London-to-Paris and -Brussels routes. The rail service recently launched Tread Lightly, an initiative designed to further reduce the train system's impact on the environment and to help its travelers do the same.

Credit: Dave Bushell / geograph.org.uk

According to Tread Lightly:

As part of this initiative, we have made a commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a further 25 percent per traveller [sic] journey by 2012. Consequently, we will be making changes across all areas of our business, from the big things like energy efficiency, paperless ticketing and waste management, through supply chain selection to smaller cultural changes like recycling in our offices.

Taking a train to Paris or Brussels, claims Eurostar - For Tomorrow, "produces just a tenth of the carbon emissions that the same journey by plane would.

"On top of that, we are now offsetting all our remaining carbon emissions, at no additional cost to you, which means that every journey you take with Eurostar will be completely carbon neutral."

Related: French Engineers Set Rail Record — With a Bullet

Resources

Eurostar.com

Eurostar - For Tomorrow

Tread Lightly (Eurostar)

Faster Eurostar Train Sets Record on London-Paris Route
The Associated Press (via International Herald Tribune), Sept. 4, 2007

Eurostar Breaks Another Record
World Travel Guide, Sept. 21, 2007

The Amazing Secrets of Eurostar
by Juliette Jowit
The Observer, Sept. 30, 2007

High-Speed Rail Technology Development
Federal Railway Administration

Cost Effectiveness
Indiana High Speed Rail Association