Excellent. We'll soon be able to catch trains to Moscow.

That'll piss SNCF off. When will high-speed trains make it to the rest of Britain? Mind you the HST (Intercity 125) and even the Class 91 (Intercity 225) are looking well out of date.

"High Speed 1" is a depressingly short piece of track, IMO.

If the ICE has free WiFi that would be awesome. Ich glaube, mein Manager ist ein Frankfurter. I hate having to deal with the crap she could be doing on the train.

It might make sense for long distance commuters. The sooner we have an airline fuel duty these train services will be even better value.

Plus when you add in the time to get to the airports (from a city centre) and all the extra check in times then the time taken to travel is a lot closer than you might think

Though how long before there are such security measures on the trains? I love flying, but the options on a train are just as good, plus for long routes you can use sleepers as well, so much more comfortable than on a plane.

The Eurostar has security checkins - you need to arrive a good 30 minutes before your train departs. It is still far less hassle than at an airport though.

High Speed 1 is a depressingly short length. I just hope that they can get HS2 and 3 planned and constructed to connect up more of the country.

I am a big fan of rail travel - when it is done well. We’ve fouled up domestic rail travel for a long time. The best domestic journey I took has to be the Virgin service to the Midlands. Shame I was going to a funeral, really. We just can’t do it properly anymore.

For me, the Eurostar is part of the experience of travelling to Europe. I love it, and it’s really only around 2 hours from London to Brussels or Paris now.

If you have 7 minutes to spare, here are some edited highlights of a Eurostar journey to Brussels through the window of the train.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTlJHPtLJto