The Eurostar high speed train provides a quick and relatively inexpensive option for your
transportation between London and Paris.
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| Eurostar Service London-Paris | | |
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| Channel Tunnel Route |
From our hotel in Hendon we opted to take a short 1-mile taxi
ride, mainly because of luggage issues, from The Pillar Hotel to the Hendon Railway Station. Once there, we simply swiped our Oyster cards,
rolled our luggage down the ramp and
waited at Track 1 for the next train to St. Pancras.
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| London Oyster Card |
The cards are similar to a credit card in size and allow
you a great way to pay-as-you-go. We
were going to be 4 nights in London so we pre-paid for our cards at a self-service
kiosk with the screen suggestion of $15GBP.
In addition you will pay a refundable deposit of $10GBP so each of our cards
cost $25GBP, around $30USD at today's exchange rate. I used my Citibank AAdvantage Platinum card
to purchase our Oyster cards, thus avoiding the foreign transaction fees.
The station at St. Pancras is relatively large in size,
comprised of four groups of platforms on two levels all accessed through the
main concourse at ground level.
Accommodating 15 platforms, a shopping center and a coach facility, we
still felt it was quite easy to find our way around. Simply follow the “Eurostar” logo signage
that you will see printed in both French and English.
When Eurostar International services were introduced, a
security-sealed terminal area was completed at St. Pancras. The Eurostar check-in offers several
self-service kiosk machines and we found them quite efficient. We simply entered our Eurostar confirmation
number and it quickly printed off our ticket/boarding pass. They only open the secured area however, about 2
hours prior to your scheduled departure time so we had a short wait before
entering.
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| Eurostar terminal in St. Pancras |
Leaving Mike seated in front of a coffee shop with our
luggage, I made my way to the underground area.
Just as you enter you will see a Visitor Center on the right.
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| St. Pancras Visitor Center |
It was here that I turned in our Oyster
cards and received a credit for the unused fare amount plus the refundable
deposit. I had paid by credit card so my
refund was returned to that same card. Once
that was finished I made my way back to the coffee shop. We still had a little time to kill so we sat
in front of the coffee shop until 10:15am.
The Eurostar screening included both passport check and
luggage screening. Once cleared and inside,
the waiting area seemed somewhat small to me with only 1 café and very limited
seating. Boarding began 25 minutes
before our scheduled departure time.
Cars 1-5 board on one side and all other cars board on the other. I had pre-purchased tickets online and we
were assigned car 5, departing from platform 9.
Inclined moving walkways eased us gently up 1 floor to our
platform. The train had already
arrived and was seemed anxiously awaiting our boarding.
It appeared fairly new to me, shiny clean on the outside and neat and clean
on the inside. A luggage stow area was
located just on the right as we entered the rear of car 5. We dropped our large suitcases here and
proceeded to our seats. I opted for 2
seats facing forward but other seating options are available, including 4 seats
facing each other with a small table in-between.
The train provides free wi-fi for streaming films, TV, news, kids games,
etc. Our seats were also equipped with
USB ports. The cost for the Eurostar London-Paris trip was $70USD per person.
I did not feel the train move as we pulled out of
the station. It was very quiet and
provided a very smooth ride. I did walk
between the cars during the trip as I wanted to check out the restrooms and
also the snack car. Both were very clean
and well maintained and the snack car was well stocked and prices very
reasonable. I didn’t purchase anything in the snack car as I had packed
food and drink items for our trip.
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| Cafe Car |
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| Restrooms | \\ |
The High Speed 1, officially the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, was launched on November 6, 2007.
It is a 68-mile, high
speed railway between London and the UK end of the Channel Tunnel. It’s lowest point is 250 feet below the
sea bed and 380 feet below sea level.
At 23.5 miles the tunnel has the longest undersea portion of any
tunnel in the world.
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| Appearing on our screen in car 5 | |
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| Appearing on our screen in car 5 |
During the trip, the train can reach
speeds of up to 186 mph, making our journey time from London St. Pancras
to Paris Gare du Nord in just under 2.5 hours.
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| On our screen in car 5 - top speed of 334.7kmp or 207.97mph |
Our arrival into Paris Nord Station was right on time. We had friends
meeting us at the station and escorting us to Hotel Du Champs de Mars, our downtown hotel. I did notice that
ground transportation was just to our right as we exited
our train.
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| Our good friends Fred and Nancy Gramann met us at Paris Nord Station |
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