Eurostar London to Paris
& Brussels

Eurostar is the high-speed passenger
train from London to Paris & Brussels via the Channel Tunnel.

First, a bit of background about this high speed train. It's run by a consortium of French railways (SNCF), Belgian railways (SNCB) and Euro-star UK Ltd.
The service started running in 1994.

Don't confuse Euro-star with EuroTunnel though, the company which owns the Channel Tunnel, sometimes called the Chunnel, and whose car-carrying trains shuttle cars, lorries and coaches from one side of the Channel to the other. The train does not carry cars, just passengers. London to Paris by Eurostar is 495 km (about 307 miles), and it takes as little as 2 hours 15 minutes, centre to centre, at up to 186 mph. Hopefully this page will explain a few things about travelling with Euro-star.

If you're going to travel a lot, for example with an InterRail or Eurail Pass, you should definitely buy one to plan your journey. It will save you a lot of time at stations queuing up to ask questions and puts you in control of your own journeys. It costs £13.99 from the bureau de change in any UK branch of Thomas Cook, or you can buy online here. (with worldwide delivery).

Published since 1873, the world-famous Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable is the train traveller's bible, and a sound investment for all regular European train travellers.

It has route maps and up-to-date timetables for trains, buses and ferries in all European countries, ferries to North Africa, Israel & the Mediterranean islands.

If you're going to travel a lot with an InterRail or Eurail pass, you should definitely buy one of these maps to plan your journey.

There's a basic online map of the European railway network, click here to view the map. This gives you a good idea of the extent of the European rail system, although it's intended for overseas visitors using Eurail passes so leaves out many routes in non-Eurail countries such as the UK, Serbia & Macedonia, and leaves out many smaller lines even in the countries covered by Eurail passes.

You'll find more detailed country-by-country rail maps here, and for the best (and official) map of the Swiss rail system, click here.

Euro-star, the high-speed passenger service that links in the UK and mainland Europe, has reverted to a full timetable with more frequent services and faster non-stop journeys - ideal for business travellers who wish to travel europe.

With a return to Euro-star's fastest centre-to-centre journey times of just 1h 51 to Brussels and 2h 15 to Paris, and with first trains arriving before 09h00, business people can maximise productivity throughout the working day.

In addition, Eurostar are adding up to a million extra seats from 23 February to the end of the year, and there are business-focused departures from Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International stations in Kent, and a new direct Ashford - Brussels service that is also timetabled for business travel.

The restoration of full Channel Tunnel capacity further increases Eurostar's ability to deliver unrivalled punctuality; the first week after full capacity was restored on 10 February saw over 95.8% punctuality. Eurostar's punctuality for 2008 was 92.4%, against an average of 65.4% for the airlines operating on its routes, according to Civil Aviation Authority data.

Return from Eurostar to Dover........click