Archive for the 'Travel' Category

Eurostar Info:::a design achievement!

Thursday, July 15th, 2004

eurostar
Eurostar is the first true international train. It connects the capital cities of France (Paris), England (London) and Belgium (Brussels). And it has set the standard for international rail travel. Eurostar is run on various track clearances and is powered by three different electrical systems. This includes overhead wires in Belgium and France and a third rail in Britain. State-of-the-art design enables Eurostar to carry as many passengers as two jumbo jets in the utmost of comfort. Each train set has 18 cars — 1 in Premium First, 5 in first class, 10 in second class and 2 bar cars. The total seating capacity is 770 seats — 205 in first class and Premium First, and 565 in second class. Its maximum commercial speed is 186 miles per hour on the French part of the trip. And travel times are a breeze. London to Paris in 2 hrs 35 minutes. London to Brussels in 2 hrs 15 minutes . London to Lille in 2 hours. Eurostar speeds you through the Channel Tunnel, one of Europe’s biggest infrastructure projects to date. The $15 billion Channel Tunnel makes the old dream of a ground link between Great Britain and continental Europe a reality for the first time since the Ice Ages.Eurostar speeds you through the Channel Tunnel, one of Europe’s biggest infrastructure projects to date. The tunnel consists of 3 interconnected tubes: 1 rail track each way plus 1 service tunnel. Its length is 31 miles, of which 23 miles are underwater. Its average depth is 150 feet under the seabed. The channel crossing time for Eurostar is only 20 minutes. 95 miles of tunnels were dug by nearly 13,000 engineers, technicians and workers. The volume of rubble removed from the tunnel is three times greater than that of the Cheops Pyramid in Egypt. And it has increased the size of Britain by 90 acres. Equivalent to 68 football fields, this area has been made into a park.
Chunnel_graphic