Hello, and welcome back to another video.
Today I am in Paris, France where I will be travelling from Paris Gare du Nord beneath
the English Channel to London St Pancras, on-board a high-speed Eurostar train.
I'm in Standard Class for this journey, on one of their new Velaro trains.
So, let's go!
Today's journey starts at the spectacular Paris Gare du Nord, or Paris North Station.
The station sees a large selection of services other than just Eurostar, including regional
and commuter trains, as well as international trains to Belgium, The Netherlands, and North
Germany.
I just love the roof here at Gare du Nord, being made of iron and plenty of glass allows
for an interior full of natural light!
All passengers for Eurostar trains must pass through a dedicated passport control and security
checkpoint, found above the main concourse.
As such, it is advisable to arrive quite some time before the departure of your train.
Presently, Eurostar recommends to arrive at least 90 minutes prior to the train's planned
departure time, due to the requirement for the labourious and time consuming extra border
checks in response to COVID-19.
As you can see, there are plenty of eateries and shops available at this station, though
I did not avail of their offer, as I had already eaten prior.
The Eurostar departures area can be found on the high-level of the station, which also
affords a fantastic view of the bustling concourse below.
Gare du Nord is the busiest station in Europe by passenger count, seeing hundreds of thousands
of passengers in a day.
To the left here you can find the dedicated Eurostar ticket office, though I wouldn't
expect to have much luck for an on-the-day ticket, with high prices and even seat availability
being an issue due to strict channel tunnel regulations necessitating compulsory reservations.
Time to indulge in culture, and begin the typically British tradition of queueing!
Now, I had expected this service to be formed of one of the older Eurostar trains, the TGV
TMST.
This being what was indicated to me on the seating plan at the time of booking...
...however, due to a decrease in demand during COVID-19, those sets were temporarily withdrawn,
meaning I was lucky enough to be travelling on one of their newer (and in my past experience,
much better) German-built trains.
Because of the massively different seating plans, I was issued a new seat automatically
at the ticket control gates, indicated on this yellow slip.
Checking my new seat, I found it was poorly aligned with a window, but thankfully someone
at the help desk issued me a seat with a better view at my request.
Anyway, after a security check and clearing of border control, we are now in the departure
lounge, which has another large selection of eateries and shops.
Many of these weren't open at this time, again due to reduced demand.
The departure lounge offers a view of the Eurostar platforms, where my train for today
is currently waiting for boarding to start.
Towards the far end of the departures area, there is a small elevated waiting area, probably
my favourite place to sit.
This area has power sockets, and being an international service, both European and UK
style plugs are catered for, as well as also having some USB ports.
It's also worth mentioning that a more luxurious lounge exists, but is dedicated only to Business
Premier passengers, a ticket for which costs more than the regular Standard Premier, or
First Class offering.
About twenty minutes before departure, boarding is called for my train.
My ride today is number EST 9039, departing from Paris Gare du Nord at 15:13, with a planned
journey time of 2 hours 26 minutes for the non-stop ride up to London this afternoon.
Beside me now is the train that will be taking me through to London.
It's a Class 374 'Eurostar e320', built from 2015 as part of the Siemens Velaro family
of trains, which also see a lot of use in Germany and Turkey for example.
This set is 374011 and 374012, with the trains running in fixed pairs of eight carriages
each, leading to a total of sixteen carriages.
These units are capable of an impressive 320km/h (200mph), but only operate in service at 300km/h
(186mph).
As you can probably imagine, it's quite the trek if you are in one of the front carriages,
with these trains being some 390 metres long.
I am booked into Standard Class Coach #4, towards the front of the train when heading
towards London.
This is my seat on the left, Coach #4 Seat #93.
A forward-facing aisle seat.
At the time of recording, Eurostar was only selling every other place, which means I was
free to take the adjacent window seat.
And naturally, I made sure I took this opportunity.
Today's route begins in the centre of Paris, at the massive and marvellous Gare du Nord.
We run through the northern suburbs of the capital, before speeding through the French
countryside, and enter the famous Channel Tunnel at Coquelle.
It is such an iconic view, of a major international infrastructure project, and a true pleasure
to ride through the tunnel.
After that, we emerge in Folkestone, England where the remainder of the journey is on High-Speed
1, the only high-speed line in the UK, which takes us through many tunnels to the spectacle
of railway station design of St Pancras International.
After a short wait, it's time to depart the French capital, on-time at 15:13.
We're soon rolling along the southernmost section of the LGV Nord, which means North
High-Speed line.
This key artery of the French railway network connects Paris with Lille, Calais, among other
French destinations, with a junction heading towards Brussels in Belgium, and of course
the route through the channel tunnel to the UK.
At present, the train is navigating its way through the suburbs of Paris, at a maximum
of 160km/h (100mph), but this speed will look rather pedestrian in comparison to our top-speed
later on in the trip!
This is 'Le Landy', a major maintenance base for all fleets operating out of Paris Gare
du Nord, including the Eurostar fleets.
It also handles the TGV and Thalys high-speed trains, as well as TER regional trains.
It's not long before we are rocketing through the countryside at full speed, passing by
the ever-rolling hills of the Hauts-de-France (or Upper France) region.
With the journey well underway, it's now time to take a look at the seat here in Standard
Class.
Starting off with perhaps the most important aspect, the level of seat comfort!
I actually found these seats really comfortable, offering a nice amount of padding, and having
a really good ergonomic shape.
There's also a generously padded leather headrest, a nice touch I thought.
As for legroom, there's ample space here in Standard Class.
Though do be warned if booking a table seat, that the amount of room is substantially reduced
due to a somewhat poorly designed table.
Beside the seat cushion, you can find a small lever, which controls the seat's much appreciated
recline function, and if you pull the base of the seat up, you can find the adustable
thigh support, in my opinion a really nice feature.
There's also a footrest attached to the bottom of the seat in front.
Above this, you can find a small but flexible storage pocket.
And here's the decently sized seatback table.
Finally, towards the top of the seat is this small groove.
I'm not 100% sure exactly what it's for, at first I thought it was
good for holding phones, but mine just ended up flipping downwards.
Leave a comment if you know why it's here!
Beneath the seat, you can also find the power sockets, and much like in the departure lounge,
international travellers are well catered for, with each pair of seats having a UK three-pin
socket, as well as a European one.
If you have a travel adaptor, as you probably should, then you can use either socket, or
both in the event you get two seats to yourself.
So let's have a look around the rest of the train.
First off, there are a few mid-carriage luggage racks, situated above a bin.
These compliment the well-sized overhead luggage racks in providing much needed storage space
on what is entirely a service used for long-distance travel.
There are also sizable luggage stacks at the end of the carriages.
This is a Standard Premier coach, which is Eurostar's First Class offering.
The interior is the same as in Business Premier, but with a lighter meal being offered, and
fewer benefits at the station (like no access to the Business lounge, or fast-track security).
Here in the rather stylish vestibule area, you can find two toilets as well a set of
recycling bins.
In both Coach #8 and #9, you can find the bar area.
Eurostar refers to this as 'Café Metropol', though unfortunately it was closed at the
time of recording, and so no catering was available.
Still, I really liked the modern abstract design of the carriage interior!
Having a look at the prices, though, I noticed they are very expensive, even by on-train
standards in the UK.
Perhaps it was a good thing that I had already eaten...
You can also buy tickets for tourist attractions in each of the three capitals served by the
core Eurostar network, as well as urban transport tickets for these cities.
After just under an hour, we are on the outskirts of Lille, in Northern France.
Here the train dives underground to the platforms of Lille-Europe, a station which sees the
majority of high-speed and international trains serving the major city of Lille.
Eurostar trains do serve here, however only the trains to/from Brussels stop at the station,
as well as seasonal trains from the South of France, in order to process luggage and
passports in what is unlovingly known as the 'Lille Shuffle'.
This station necessitates the train slows to 'just' 200km/h (125mph), but afterwards
the train shoots back up to 300km/h (186mph), running at great speed once again through
the French countryside on this lovely sunny day.
Speaking of the sun, there's also a sunblind provided at every window, but I found it wasn't
very effective at blocking out the light due to having such a low-density mesh.
Above the windows you can also find a sliding coathook.
It's a little bit tricky to move, though.
This is Calais-Fréthun, the final station on the LGV Nord route.
This station is temporarily closed to Eurostar services, as a result of COVID-19 leading
to Eurostar focusing only on its busiest stations.
However, what this station does signify is that we are fast approaching the world-famous
Channel Tunnel through to England!
This tunnel is a marvel of modern engineering, stretching the 31.35 miles (50.46km) under
the English Channel, between Coquelles in Northern France, and Folkestone in South East
England.
After numerous proposals dating back as far as 1802, the so-called 'Chunnel' finally started
construction in 1988, and opened to passenger traffic in 1994.
The tunnel consists of two main portals for rail traffic, and a central 'service' tunnel
for utility vehicles and emergencies.
Nowadays, other than Eurostar services, the Channel Tunnel sees the Eurotunnel 'LeShuttle'
service for road vehicles, as well as some freight trains.
Now, I'd love to show you the full video of the Channel Tunnel from the inside...but I
can't really say that it would be particularly interesting!
After roughly 20 minutes crossing the channel (a perfect opportunity for changing your watch
to account for UK time of course), we emerge in Kent!
The train is now travelling on a route called High Speed 1, which connects the Channel Tunnel
with Kent and London.
To the left is the South Eastern Main Line, a classic route that also links Kent with
London, powered by the 750v direct current third rail system.
Historically, the Eurostar trains would have trundled along this route on their way to
the capital, until High Speed 1 fully opened in 2007.
We are now passing Ashford International, one of two Eurostar stations in Kent, Southeast
England.
Much like Calais-Fréthun, these stations are not presently accepting Eurostar trains
due to cited lack of demand.
With the journey's end fast approaching, let's run through the price.
This trip cost me £75 exactly (€82.40 / $95.50), booking about two weeks in advance.
Such a ticket is valid only on the booked date and on the booked train.
For a journey of 307 miles, this gives a price per mile of 25p.
This seems fairly expensive, and to some extent it is, but when you remember that the costs
of running the train through the Channel Tunnel are very high, and the convenience of running
from the centre of Paris straight to the centre of London, without stopping, in a decent time
of under 2.5hr, it doesn't seem quite so bad.
Fares in Standard Class can start at as little as £39, which is fantastic, but if you leave
it to the last minute, it's not uncommon to find tickets costing nearly £200!
Overall, I am generally pretty impressed with the Eurostar Standard Class experience, it's
a fast way to get between London and the continent, with a comfortable and smooth ride.
I certainly prefer it to flying!
We're now arriving into London St Pancras International, the terminus station for my
train.
Arrival today is an impressive eight minutes early, at 16:31.
St Pancras International has long been one of my favourite train stations anywhere in
the world, not only because of its stunning trainshed, but also because it is symbolic
of international rail travel from the UK, and the many incredible adventures you can
have.
As I leave the train, why not take a moment to post a comment letting me know what you
think of the Eurostar experience?
Thanks for watching my video on Eurostar.
If you enjoyed it, then be sure to leave a like, and for more similar content,
subscribe to the channel!
I hope you enjoyed the video, and I look forward to seeing you again on my next journey.