(Agence France Presse distributed the following article on September 26.)
LONDON — Rail passengers in Britain will from this weekend finally enjoy the sort of high-speed travel long familiar to their continental counterparts when the first stage of a key new link with Europe opens to the public.
The 46 miles (74 kilometres) of track running from the Channel Tunnel through southern England is not only Britain’s first new rail line for more than a century, it is also central to the hopes of rail operator Eurostar.
The new line — the first stage of a hugely expensive link that will eventually run all the way to London — will slash 20 minutes from journey times between London and both Paris and Brussels.
It was officially opened by British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news – web sites) earlier this month, but carries its first paying passengers on Sunday.
Since the service began in 1994, Eurostar customers have travelled at up to 190 miles (300 kilometres) an hour in France and Belgium only to slow down to a comparatively snail-paced 60 miles (100 kilometres) an hour on the other side of the Channel Tunnel.
That was the maximum speed possible on the aging British track, which also involved gleaming Eurostar trains sharing lines with chugging local services, prone to breaking down and running late.
Britain has spent 1.9 billion pounds (2.7 billion euros, 3.1 billion dollars) on the initial section of track.
When the remainder of the line to London’s St Pancras station is finished around 2007 — at a cost of a further 3.3 billion pounds — it will shave yet more time from journeys.
The project is a welcome boost for Eurostar, which revealed in July that passenger numbers for the first six months of the year had dropped 11 percent against the same period of 2002.
The company, owned by French rail operator SNCF, Belgian railways and Britain’s Channel Tunnel Rail Link consortium, blames the economic downturn and declining tourist numbers but insists it has held its market share against expanding budget airlines.
Eurostar says it hopes the new line will see it increase its share of the highly lucrative and competitive London to Paris route from 60 to 70 percent.
“This 10 percent will not be gained from leisure travellers because we already have 80 percent of the leisure market,” said SNCF president Louis Gallois when the line was officially opened.
“We must get the business travellers, because our market share there is less than 50 percent,” he said.
“Reliability and speed are particular attractions for business customers.”
Eurostar also hopes to pick up more business between London and Brussels, where it has less than a 40-percent share.
The mix of customers is vital: while business travellers comprise only 27 percent of Eurostar passengers, they provide almost half its revenue.
From Sunday, Eurostar trains will travel from London to Paris in 2 hours 30 minutes and to Brussels in two hours 20 minutes.
When the new line is completed these times will fall to two hours 20 minutes and two hours five minutes respectively.