EUROSTAR Train 9024 was speeding across the plains of Northern France with Class 374 ‘Velaro’ tri-voltage half-sets Nos. 4033/34 forming 16 coaches weighing some 916 tonnes tare and packing 21,000hp. Cruising speed was close to the 300kph infrastructure’s maximum, varying with the gradients and neutral sections, averaging around 290kph (180mph) over long distances.
We had left London St Pancras International on time to the second at 11.31 and made the mouth of the Channel Tunnel in just 32min 26sec, covering the 111.41km (69.2 miles) at an average 207kph (129mph). To those train timers weaned on Southern CEP EMU and baggage car formations of 13 coaches usually taking over 80min to reach Folkestone Harbour before the tedious embarkation, unpredictable crossing times and unseemly scrummages alongside a Calais Maritime boat train, there could be no more striking example that times have changed.
On the other hand, you could turn up at London Victoria a minute before departure back in those times and choose your own seat.
Nowadays it is nearer 40min before departure and tolerate whatever the computer chooses to allocate, in this case ‘backwards aisle’… as usual.
Passage through the tunnel took 20min 25sec, more than a little down on the Railway Performance Society fastest time of 18min 56sec, recorded in 1994, but with no sign of any ‘perturbation’ that could threaten my Strasbourg connection of an hour from Paris Nord to Paris Est. It took until approaching Lille Europe before such optimism reverted to realism. We stuttered along from ‘repère’ board to ‘repère’ board before we ground to a halt for 26 minutes, during which time ‘signalling problems’ became ‘wires down’.
A missed connection
Another half hour’s crawl ensued, during which time I intercepted the Eurostar crew member responsible for sorting out connectional implications of the delay as she passed through my coach at a faster speed than our train was travelling. “Was the 15.51 [incidentally 15.53 retimed by 2min by text message after having booked] the last train to Strasbourg?” she asked, clearly with no idea of where Strasbourg was or its importance. “Do you really think you would not have enough time?” “Er… yes.” My ticket was stamped ‘rupture de correspondance’ and I was told the train manager of the next train would accommodate me when shown the document. I suppressed my scepticism.
Ready for the off at St Pancras International on October 9 with ‘Velaro’ Class 374 half-set No. 4033 heading train 9024, the 11.31 to Paris Nord.
ALL PHOTOS BY JOHN HEATON
1; Duplex TGV 2N2 No. 4706 at Paris Est on October 9.
2: The interior of a typical First Class‘Corail’ open coach in use on Strasbourg to Bâle (Basel) TER trains on October 10.
In that strange way that fate finds to mock us, arrival in Paris Nord coincided precisely with the booked departure of my connection from the Gare de l’Est. The walk between the two stations is further than St Pancras to King’s Cross, but probably shorter than to Euston. However, it seems longer than I remembered it when I once arrived from Boulogne at 16.54 and, travelling faster than a bolt from William Tell’s crossbow, made the Arbalète for Zurich at 17.05, a train with conventional restaurant car and a 3,550hp Class 72000 diesel. Another reminder that times have changed.