Eurostar confirmed its changover date yesterday.

As from November 14, 2007, Eurostar services from Waterloo will cease. All services will depart from St Pancras International.

This will bring journey times to Paris to 2h 15, and to Brussels to 1h 51.

Some continental connection times will also be sharpened. Eurostar claim the journey time to Amsterdam, changing at Brussels, comes down to 3h 30 - which makes it competitive on time with planes for people who can get to St Pancras or Ebbsfleet easily (though this depends on startup dates for Brussels-Amsterdam improvements that are outside Eurostar's control).

Cologne, they say, comes down to 3h 30 too, with Frankfurt 4h 40 and Strasbourg (ch Lille) 4h 30.

Eurostar conceded prices would rise, but claimed the £59 London-Paris advance purchase return would stay. They did not define how onerous the conditions for the cheapo would be.

Pardon my ignorance but how far is St Pancras International from Waterloo?

St Pancras is right next to King's Cross. Shouldn't take more than 30 minutes by tube (IF there is no service disruptions).

Waterloo - st Pancras isn't far but it's a bugger with luggage.

BTW is ebbsfleet the same as Ashford?

Waterloo-St Pancras is a bugger because Waterloo has always had a rotten tube service.

From practically everywhere else on the planet, though, St Pancras is a doddle to get to. Its tube station is the best connected of all, with direct tubes to practically every station in the system (except of course Waterloo). Kings Cross and St Pancras between them have trains to about 35% of Britain's population: the nearby Euston serves about another 30%.

St Pancras will have direct trains to Gatwick and Luton airports (there's already a direct tube to Heathrow): indeed Eurostar are considering introducing direct trains to CDG as well.

Ebbsfleet's in that bit of North Kent that's really the underside of Essex. Miles from Ashford, which is likely to be phased out.

Going to be a real bastard getting the Eurostar from the Cotswolds now. That's progress I suppose.

it's added an extra 20 minutes for us wimbledon types too.

What's going to happen to the terminal at Waterloo, with the platforms, track etc?

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What's going to happen to the terminal at Waterloo, with the platforms, track etc?
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southwest trains i heard.

as you probably have experienced, trains often need to wait to get into waterloo at peak times.

7 eurostar trains a day are slated to serve Ebbsfleet International and yes Ashford International is practically being abandoned, only have a few daily Eurostars stopping there - upsetting local authorities who had spurred development around the station by ballyhooing their Eurostar access.

Ebbsfleet International was finished this summer and is ready to go. It will be the only stop in UK besides St Pancras and the odd train at Ashford. Stratford International, once slated to be a Eurostar stop has been de-Internationalised and will only see Kent Sprinter trains stopping there on the new high-speed route running thru it. Originally it was envisioned that Eurostars would go via Stratford to points in northern England but those trains have been scrubbed. In fact the Eurostar trains meant for that service are now in operation in France on the Paris-Lille high-speed line.

The high-speed line in Benelux is finished by when trains exactly will start using it is in doubt - originally previsioned for this spring, testing may take a bit longer. Why there are no thru London-Amsterdam Eurostar trains planned beats me or London-Cologne. But the speed up London-amsterdam is no doubt why Stena Line is removing their fast ferry Harwich-Hook Holland service that offered train links on each end.

As for getting to St Pancras if the long-planned CrossRail train tunnel under London and reaching out towards the Cotswolds would ever get off the drawing board then St Pancras i think would be quicker for many than waterloo??