badge

Friday, September 30, 2011

An Amazing Train Journey


I looked out of the window of the suburban train as it crossed the Paddington station. It was not on the '4.50 from Paddington' and mercifully no murder was taking place on the train. I could only get a glimpse of the two cute girls aged about five to seven years engaged in a game of cards( Uno, I guess!), as the train passed from the opposite direction. It had been raining and the temperature had come down. In a short while we arrived at the Waterloo station.
 The Waterloo station is located in the heart of Central London and works with a clock work precision. We were booked by Eurostar for a journey to Paris. After completing the immigration checks we came to the main concourse where some people were idling and others were looking for souvenirs in the adjacent shop. One could see the professionalism in running of this prestigious train. Around 3 PM the train smoothly glided on the platform, almost noiselessly. It was to depart at 3.11 PM and it left bang on time! The train zipped through the country side tearing through the lush green fields sprawling for miles on either side of the track passing Ashford International ,and reached Dover at 4 PM. In next 20 minutes the train went through the tunnel to cross the English Channel before emerging in France at Calais Frethun. In 1988 construction began for the Eurotunnel which was finished in 1993. On 20 June 1993, the first Eurostar test train travelled through the tunnel to the UK.Eurotunnel was officially opened in May 1994.The tunnel is truly a marvel of modern day engineering linking UK with France through the English Channel and is the second longest under sea tunnel.
The scenery changes dramatically at the small town of Calais, as sea gulls soared in the clear blue sky.The journey continued with a brief halt at Lille before arriving at Gare du Nord station in Paris.
The train has more capacity than a jumbo jet – 766 seats per train! Travelling at up to 300km/h, it takes  less time to reach Paris Central than a journey by air.
It was an amazing train journey!

                                                              Eurostar at Calais, France




Read more: http://travelpod.com/members/rahulbhatia20

7 comments:

  1. Sir, I think you have traveled the entire globe. :) Beautiful post, wish could experience the train travel in Euro tunnel.

    Saru

    ReplyDelete
  2. I clicked on the link but following message is coming up, please check.
    'The file you requested is not found.'

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ Sub-Thanks for liking this!
    @ Saru- I have seen a bit and there is still so much more to see! My apologies for the error in the link which I have rectified.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Loved reading this! The speed of it is mind blowing ~ I wasn't aware of this fact.

    I was in the London area when the construction of this was just commencing and some day I would love to go back and take a ride.

    When this tunnel project was first proposed, skeptics were concerned of it being a target for terrorism/bombing. That part did scare me and I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on the topic? Did you feel safe?

    Thanks for taking us on this ride :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lady Fiona- I am delighted that you enjoyed this post!The journey on Eurostar was very safe and it is like taking a flight with baggage screening, and regular security drill that one goes through, at any airport.I will share some more interesting journeys in future too.:)

    ReplyDelete