Using the new route to St Pancras station, which opens to the public in November, a Eurostar train has done the journey from Brussels to London in under 2 hours. See http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/tra...cle2984783.ece. This brings Brussels closer than Manchester in journey time.

Well, I was going to give a big cheer until I looked up the Amtrak schedule for Baltimore/New York.

Both runs are about 320 km. Both take just under 2 hr, and the Amtrak makes 3 stops.

Ira

I have just been looking at the Amtrak timetable, and cannot see a train that takes less than 2 hours 11 minutes to go from Baltimore to New York.

Which train does the journey in less than 2 hours?

Please tell that to the folks who refuse to ride AMTRAK, Ira.

Hi C,

The 09:00 out of NYC ** departs ** Balto at 11:09.

However, the point was, the Eurostar's 2 hrs to cover 320 km should be much less time than Amtrak's.

Question, curious? How much is each fare?

<<< However, the point was, the Eurostar's 2 hrs to cover 320 km should be much less time than Amtrak's. >>>

1h51m compared to 2h11m - or to put it another way it does it in under 85% of the time with 2 stops

Baltimore-New York is about 30 miles less than London - Brussels and still takes at least 20 minutes more, so Eurostar isn't quite as useless as some of these post might suggest.....

And thmere is the small matter of a BLOODY GREAT TUNNEL UNDER THE SEA to enter into the equation - it slows to 60mph for that bit.

A. It is about 2:04 hr for the Amtrak.
B. It doesn't matter if there is a tunnel or not.
C. Amtrak makes 3 stops.

However, the point is still that Eurostar is touting this as a major event, so one would think that they can do it significantly faster than Amtrak.

The TGVest covers 440 km from Paris to Strasbourg in 2:19 hr. Now that's flying.

At the risk of sounding a bit of an anorak, Eurostar's official top speed is 300kph (185mph). The same as the TGV. Both have gone considerably faster under test conditions.

And, yes, faster still than the US's 'high speed' trains. Do I detect some sour grapes from across the big pond......8-)

I had to look up "anorak". For those who are as uneducated as I am... the first meaning is a heavy coat like a parka. The second meaning, "In Britain, the word anorak is also a somewhat pejorative term for people whose interests are perceived to be nerdy, or who have more expertise in an arcane topic than seems rational."

word anorak is also a somewhat pejorative term for people whose interests are perceived to be nerdy, or who have more expertise in an arcane topic than seems rational."

and specifically often applied to train spotters - that weird British passion some 'nerds' have of standing on platforms recording head codes and types of trains that that 'spot' - they inevitably wear anoraks because of the oft cool conditions and ubiquitously have termoses of coffee or ??? at their side. Video cameras have revolutionized train spotting i believe

But look and at many busy stations you will see a coterie of anorak-clad train spotters at the end of the platforms duly recording the train head codes (just train numbers - get a life!)

Lol, Aisleseat.

Can't quite belive I posted anything so banal....off to find a thread about marmite or something else reassuringly frivolous.....

Speed inside the 31-mi tunnel is about 100mph.

Maybe they should have built a bridge instead!

I've read that the fastest in-service passenger train in Europe is the ICE on newly purpose built right of way between Cologne and Frankfurt Flughafen - up to 195 mph - a tad faster than TGV though i'm not sure about TGV Est line but then ICEs run that route as well and in theory could go as fast i guess.

Spain apparently is due to take over the in-service passenger speed record soon when the Barcelona-Madrid high-speed line is put into full operation - these TGV i think trains are scheduled to blow along at about 205 mph - we are talking about max speed, not average speeds for those trajectories of course.

Britain is the slow country as regards rail travel - i think a Virgin Pendolino may have set a speed record recently between London and Birmingham at around 130 mph or so.

Without being too much of a nerd or an anorak, it seems that British trains are generally less fast than many in continental Europe. This may be because the infrastructure is generally older and more congested.

However, trains are generally more frequent. On most main lines, trains run every 30 minutes.

It's bloody Beeching's fault

The government owned British Rail was a mess in the 70's, along with most of other stuff in the UK.

Margaret Thatcher came in to power, and one of the many stuff she privatized was the rail system.

I think most will argue that her privatization effort help the UK economy a lot, but many will also argue that the rail system was one that probably shouldn't be included.

Instead of putting money into the infrastructure and create an efficient transportation system for the country like France and Germany, the UK effort was mostly about cost cutting.

As a result, no dedicated highspeed rail (except for the soon-to-open Channel Rail Link), generally poor reliability, and also lots of high profile accidents in the last 20 years.

Anyways, that's my very general, personalized view; as a rail enthusiast looking from far away.

Margaret Thatcher came in to power, and one of the many stuff she privatized was the rail system.>>>>

That was John Major old boy.

Audere - an anorak of the first water when it comes to trains. I went to see the film Trainspotting and was very disgruntled by the lack of actual trainspotting in it.