The UK’s first high-speed railway got a royal welcome last night, as HM the Queen witnessed three Eurostar trains arriving from Paris for their debut at the first official opening of the redeveloped St Pancras station.
Congratulating all involved in the redevelopment, the Queen commended the quality and attention to detail put into the restoration of the great station, once earmarked for demolition.
"The remarkable re—birth of this great and gleaming station means that people across the whole of Britain, not just the south-east, are suddenly quite a bit closer to Europe," the Queen says.
"And as we look forward to the London Olympics in 2012, it is good to know that a journey from here to the new High Speed 1 station at Stratford will take spectators a mere seven minutes.
"All these things will bring real differences to people's lives.
"[This] is a wonderful illustration of what can be achieved through working in partnership, and it says a good deal about how we can take a twenty-first century approach whilst at the same time having due consideration to our heritage."
St Pancras station and Eurostar services will not be available to the public until November 14, but already more than one million passengers have booked onto the service, which will travel at 186mph to deliver passengers to Brussels in just 1hr 43 mins.
The service also stops in Paris.
The new service has been commended for its £5.8bn implementation, which came in on time and budget.
By Penny Jones
Related links
High Speed 1
Eurostar Revamps High-Speed Service
