St. Pancras Opens its Doors

St Pancras International station opened it's doors to the first Eurostar trains today, following the move from London's Waterloo International station.

The Queen officially unveiled the £800 million station last week to great fanfare, and the officially opening to the public was held today. The first Eurostar train left St Pancras International for Paris just after 11am this morning.

The Eurostar train arrived in Paris at 1317 hours using the newly completed High Speed 1 line. Eurostar trains can now travel up to 186 miles per hour along the line, cutting the journey time down between the UK and the continent.

Eurostar commented that the new station makes Eurostar services "more accessible" to British travellers. St Pancras International station is next door to the main Kings Cross station, from which Virgin and GNER trains serve a large proportion of the UK.

The new High Speed 1 line is now the shining star of the UK's rail network, with the rest of the UK infrastruture creaking due to chronic conjestion and archaic lines.

For those travelling to the Alps this winter, the new opening provides more excitement, faster journey times and a greener method of travel via. the snow train.

For new timetables, Eurostar tickets or general information please visit our soon to be updated Eurostar tickets page.

Europe's Longest Champagne Bar

As if you didn't already have a good enough reason to travel along the all new High Speed 1 tracks, St. Pancras International has unveiled a new bar for passengers arriving and departing from the new terminal.

But this isn't just any old bar. The bar, some 100 yards long, is the longest champagne bar in Europe. If you get the timing right, your could be enjoying your glass of champagne as a Eurostar train pulls in six feet away. It's a hard life at this new station....

The bar is officially opened with the station tomorrow.

Waterloo Sunset

It's the end of an era. Waterloo International station has served as the home of Eurostar over the last 13 years and finally closed its doors today to make way for the all new St. Pancras International station, which officially commences Eurostar services from tomorrow.

All through the day Waterloo International has been a hub of activity, attracting guests and celebrities such as the Starlight Music Academy and Lily Allen, who sang a cover of The Kinks' 'Waterloo Sunset' for a fitting finale.

The Eurostar blog has covered the events throughout the day and has a good selection of pictures on their main blog and Flickr pages.

And what next for Waterloo? It currently serves as the main service centre for South West Trains, and the old Eurostar platforms are likely to be used to ease chronic conjestion. On a more sour note for Waterloo, 5 platforms could be mothballed at a cost of £500,000 a year because the Government have yet to make up their minds with what to do with them.