Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 24, 2009

Eurostar is a high-speed railway passenger train service in Western Europe connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All Eurostar services cross under the English Channel via the Channel Tunnel, owned by Eurotunnel. In the United Kingdom, calling points are St Pancras railway station, then Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International within Kent. In France they are Gare de Calais-Fréthun, Gare de Lille-Europe and finally Paris Gare du Nord. Trains to Belgium terminate at Brussels-South railway station. In addition, there are limited services from London to Disneyland Resort Paris at Gare de Marne-la-Vallée - Chessy, and seasonal destinations in France. The service is operated by eighteen-carriage Class 373 trains which run at up to 300 kilometres per hour (186 mph) on a network of high-speed lines. The LGV Nord line in France opened before Eurostar services began in 1994 and newer lines enabling faster journeys were added later—HSL 1 in Belgium and High Speed 1 in southern England. The French and Belgian parts of the network are shared with Paris–Brussels Thalys services and other TGV trains. In the United Kingdom the two-stage Channel Tunnel Rail Link project was completed on 14 November 2007, when the London terminus of Eurostar transferred from Waterloo International to St Pancras. Eurostar is operated by the national railway companies of France and Belgium, SNCF and SNCB, and by Eurostar (UK) Ltd (EUKL), a subsidiary of London and Continental Railways (LCR) which in turn also owns the high-speed infrastructure and stations on the British side. Eurostar has become the dominant operator in cross-channel intercity passenger travel on the routes that it operates, carrying more passengers than the airlines combined. Other operators have stated an interest in purchasing EUKL, or starting competing services following deregulation in 2010.

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