Eurostar sets train speed record

By Pete Harrison

LONDON (Reuters) - Eurostar set a new Paris to London rail speed record of just over two hours on Tuesday with the first train to use Britain's long-awaited high speed track at around 320 kilometres (about 199 miles) per hour.

The service carrying journalists and officials from Paris made its inaugural run down 68 miles (109 km) of British track known as High Speed 1 and arrived for the first time at St Pancras International rather than the usual Waterloo terminus.

Shaving minutes off the journey is vital to Eurostar as it competes with airlines for passengers across the channel. The journey time was 2 hours, 3 minutes and 39 seconds, compared with the usual 2 hours 35 minutes to Waterloo.

"I don't think that'll be beaten, as we had the line to ourselves," train driver Neil Meare, 52, told reporters on arrival.

The normal journey time from Paris to St Pancras will be 2 hours 15 minutes.

The official switch to St Pancras takes place on November 14, and the station will eventually link with the site of the 2012 Olympics at Stratford in east London.

Eurostar stripped out food trolleys and ran the train half empty to save weight on its record attempt.

"The top speed in the UK was around 320 kilometres per hour coming over the Medway river, and it was a bit faster in France," said Meare.