Rock ‘n’ roll from Paris to London

 On the platform at Paris Gare du Nord there was a brass band and free champagne, and more camera crews than you could count. Eurostar departures aren’t normally like this, but then this was no ordinary departure.

A record-setting Eurostar train arrives triumphantly at St Pancras

High speed trains are nothing new in France, but they’re still a novelty in the UK where the first high speed line, across Kent, opened in 2003.

Since then Eurostar trains travelling to and from the Channel Tunnel have been able to travel lickety-spit at a notional top speed of 186mph, or 300 kilometres per hour, to a point just south of the Thames.

But then they have to slow right down to meander through south London on conventional train lines to Waterloo station.

The inaugural special has been laid on to take the first passengers – journalists and VIPs – from Paris to the new London terminus at St Pancras on high speed lines the entire way.

And there’s no hanging about. Departing a minute earlier than advertised, at 1043 Paris time, the driver really puts his foot down.

Somewhere north of Paris, travelling across the flat plain of northern France, we hit 202mph – 320km/h