Eurostar: what next?

High Speed 1 from London St Pancras International to the Channel Tunnel, UK, will be opened on 14 November 2007. The move from Waterloo to St Pancras will cut journey times by an average of 23-25 minutes. The Eurostar operation involves three train operators: SNCF (French Railways), SNCB (Belgian Railways) and Eurostar UK. A single Anglo-French management team runs the business. The technical challenges were four types of infrastructure (three railways plus Eurostar), four separate signalling systems on the trains, and four separate safety regimes. Total passenger journeys by Eurostar have grown. Eurostar's share of the rail/air market on the London to Paris and Brussels routes has risen to two-thirds. Extra trains could be introduced to cope with increased demand. The transfer to St Pancras will boost punctuality. Journey time from Ebbsfleet International will be 2 hours 5 minutes to Paris, with the station opening adjacent on 19 November 2007. St Pancras will offer excellent connections to the Midland main line and the East Coast and West Coast main lines. RailTeam has been created to bring together the interests of different rail companies in Europe to offer seamless travel across international borders on high speed services. The competition between rail and air, ticketing issues, e-strategies and environmental issues are considered.