Eurostar
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Eurostar is the name of the train which travels between London and Paris or Brussels. In London the terminus is at Waterloo, which must have been selected with ironic intent as it is the worst-connected of all the London termini.
There are three classes of travel: standard, first and premium first. Standard is somewhat cramped to France, less so to belgium, and requires that you buy your own food. That makes it dearer than an equivalent air ticket, and two hours slower to Brussels. Premium first is comparable in service to a business-class air ticket, but considerably more expensive and similarly slower.
So why does anyone travel on Eurostar?
I believe that this is down to the indefinable romance of European rail travel. One boards a train in the city centre, and is whisked1 in eerie silence and comfort2 to the capital of another country. If time is no object it's the only way to travel. And if you like trains, it's a particulalry beautiful one - gleaming white, excitingly streamlined.
Sadly the cabin service has declined of late and the prices have increased, making this most civilised of travelling experiences less attractive than the more prosaic Boeing 737.
1except through Kent, where one is overtaken by 1950s vintage slam-door trains2except in standard class
