[Eurostar International Foyer]

[Eurostar train at St Pancras]

[The Meeting Place. That's the name of the statue and the place]

[Europe's longest Champagne bar]

[Departures to Paris and Brussels]

[Visitors from Paris and Brussels can then connect from St Pancras to Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield. Lucky them.]

On the 14th of November London’s Eurostar terminal moved from Waterloo to St Pancras. Eurostar began operations in 1994 but it has until now never been able to travel at high speed when in Britain. A new tunnel was dug under the east of London to enable high speed train travel all the way to the English channel.

The move to St Pancras means that travel times to Paris have been reduced from 2 hours 35 minutes to 2 hours 15 minutes. Travel to Brussels has gone from 2 hours 20 minutes to 1 hour and 51 minutes.

St Pancras comprises two remarkable Victorian era buildings. The front of St Pancras is a classic London landmark, the former Midland Grand Hotel, built in the Gothic revival style by Architect Gilbert Scott.

This part of the station is being converted into apartments, St Pancras Chambers, which is currently being advertised as 66 luxury apatments and 1 unique £10 Million Penthouse.

[St Pancras Clock Tower]

Behind this grand frontage is the train shed of the Engineer William Barlow. This enclosed area consists of single span arches that measure 74.8m (243 ft) across, which at the time it opened was the largest single span structure in the world.

[St Pancras Train Shed Roof]

The Midland Grand Hotel was closed in 1935 and St Pancras went into a slow decline to the point where it was threatened with demolition in the 1960′s. Fortunately the building was saved, and in in 1996 the building’s fortunes changed when the government approved the new high speed rail link that would put 20 kilometres of tunnel under London, bringing the Eurostar service to St Pancras.

The building was then carefully renovated and modified to accommodate the new high speed service along with the existing mainline services that operate to the Midlands. A modern extension has been added to the arched train shed to accommodate the 400 metre long Eurostar trains. The basement of the old station, which was once used as a cellar to store beer brought to London from the Midlands, is now used as the Eurostar departures area.

[Eurostar Departure Lounge]

Eurostar operates around 50 services a day between the UK and France/Belgium. Eurostar trains are 400 metres long and comprise 18 passenger carraiges and two power cars. There are 750 seats on each train, almost equivalent to the capacity levels of two Boeing 747 planes.

The 13th of November 2007 is the last day of Eurostar at London Waterloo.

[Goodbye Waterloo]

While it may have amused the English to have the French arrive at a station named Waterloo, you can be assured that the French were having the last laugh before they even got to the station. Laughing at the slowness of trains in Britain.

Underfunded British railway infrastructure meant that the high speed Eurostar would have to slow down to regular passenger train speed once it emerged on the English side of the tunnel.

As of the 14th of November the Eurostar will operate from St Pancras and will use the new high speed tunnel under London.

[Eurostar - Waterloo International]