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Paul Corfield · March 15th 07, 09:21 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:13:53 +0000, wrote:

On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:54:11 +0000, Paul Terry
wrote:

On the other hand, those of us that live only 20 minutes from Waterloo
may decide that it will be quicker to fly to Paris from Heathrow than
treck across London to St Pancras.

With the greater expense and danger ) flying entails and hanging
around in Heathrow and CDG on top Paul.
OK, I know you can't please everyone ... but I thought it was a pity
that the original idea of continuing to run some Eurostar services from
Waterloo was abandoned.

I don't know maybe it is me but considering the expense of the new
high speed line just to save around 30 minutes between London and
Brussels what is the point . I have now made around 10 round trips via
Eurostar and only once has the train been considerably late and the
hold up was on the French side not the UK and I got a free trip out of
Eurostar in compensation anyway.

You would not be asking about the benefit of the high speed line if you
had travelled on Eurostar when it trundled its way at 50 mph through
Kent.

I got to the point where I stopped travelling on Eurostar because I
could not stand the interminable delays and late running both in the UK,
the losing a slot at the tunnel and then losing a slot on the French
high speed line. I have had journeys that should take about 4 hours door
to door take nearly 6 hours due to the appalling operation pre high
speed line and then the knock problems of reduced evening frequencies
(due to a much later arrival) on the Paris suburban network for my
onward trip to final destination.

Usage of Eurostar has increased considerably even with only half a high
speed line on the UK side largely because delays have virtually
disappeared and thus the tunnel transit and slot in France are not lost.
It is certainly a far nicer experience now and I can't wait for the full
HSL to open. I also gain because I live north of the Thames on a direct
tube line to Kings Cross.

The easy of traveling via Eurostar has put me off flying these days
only half an hour check in no hassle with customs returning to
Waterloo it really is so easy it doesn't seem so when you are actually
en route but looking back it really is .

I cannot understand why anyone would fly to somewhere like Paris. I
cannot abide the ludicrous timescales to get through airports and I
actually think that Eurostar's policy is also daft even recognising the
security issues surrounding travel via the Tunnel. There is no
requirement to check in 30 minutes in advance for an international train
in Europe that might well pass through huge tunnels on its route.

The other point about the HSL being beneficial is that it will make both
transfer from UK domestic services onto Eurostar more convenient for a
fair slice of people - but obviously not everyone. I do think the
Eurostar decision concerning stopping services at Ashford is probably
wrong. The other aspect is that a quick journey from London to Paris /
Brussels makes interchange to other high speed rail in Europe a more
attractive proposition thus reducing the need for quite so many air
journeys on what are quite short hops. I'd almost certainly prefer to go
by rail than by air for a decent chunk of possible European trips. The
next problem they have to fix is being able to book tickets quickly and
easily and to get prices down.

--
Paul C

Admits to working for London Underground!