PARIS — A wire service reports that a joint venture led by engineering group Alstom SA has won a contract to build a section of high-speed rail for Eurostar trains that will cut travel times from London to Brussels and Paris, the company said Monday.
Alstom, along with Britain’s Carillion and France’s Travaux du Sud-Ouest, won the 190-million euro (dlrs 187-million) contract for the 40-kilometer (25-mile) stretch of high-speed track from London’s St. Pancras station to Ebbsfleet, Kent.
St. Pancras station is slated to replace Waterloo station as the London terminus for Eurostar trains in 2007.
Alstom said the new rail link, also to be ready by 2007, will halve the time between London and the Channel Tunnel, shaving roughly 40 minutes off journeys from London to Paris and Brussels. It will enable travelers to get from London to Paris in 2 hours and 20 minutes, while Brussels will be just 2 hours away.