High Speed One opens

A new high speed rail link between London and Paris has brought the two capitals closer together, shaving 20 minutes off the journey time. The link that starts at London's St Pancras station also cuts 25 minutes off the journey time to Brussels. This report from Rob Broomby:

The French opened their stretch of the high speed line back in 1993, a year before the tunnel under the English Channel itself opened. The high speed line to Brussels was finished in 1997; and now, ten years after that, Britain has finally caught up with its 12 billion dollar line High Speed One.

At 11:01 the First Eurostar, named "Tread Lightly" to emphasise the environmental advantage of rail travel, edged smoothly out of the station heading for Paris. Just minutes later, the first fast train arrived from Brussels and passengers spilled out onto the platform to give their first impressions of the journey:

PASSENGERS: Great, yeah, very fast and… it's fantastic. Great, you said right - it was a wonderful journey.

But much of the excitement here has focused not on the fast links to Europe but on the lovingly refurbished Victorian train-shed - a jewel from the age of steam - now sporting what claims to be the longest champagne bar in Europe, and it sits under what was when built the largest single span roof in the world.

But most of Britain's mainline trains trundle along at nothing like the 186 miles per hour of the Eurostar. Rail enthusiasts are already asking, if this is High Speed One, when will there be a High Speed Two? The answer is still, no time soon.

Rob Broomby, BBC

This is the article that I adapted from the section "Learning English - Words in the News" from the BBC website. It not only provides interesting articles but also highlights words or phrases plus the explanations for you to learn. I think the words or phrases they picked for you to learn are quite useful actually. I'm eager to put it in my article if I have the chance. Speaking of the high speed railway in Europe, I have already want to take a ride in it for a long time. Especially the route below the English Tunnel, that sounds pretty exciting to me. I really wonder how they could build a railway under the sea. Hmm...wish I could visit Europe next year during the summer vacation. Hope...