High-speed Eurostar defies strikers

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Having switched headquarters overnight from Waterloo Station to St Pancras Station in London, the train arrived at Gare du Nord Station in Paris on schedule at just before 2.15pm French time.

Keen to promote its green credentials Eurostar carried environmentalists on board the train, which was named Tread Lightly after the company's environmental campaign was launched earlier this year.

There had been fears that demonstrations by students joining in strikes by Parisian transport staff on Wednesday could have delayed the train.

But with the service now able to travel at 186mph through southern England thanks to the completion of the £5.8 billion High Speed 1 rail link, the Paris scheduled arrival time was met.

Moments after the Paris train left St Pancras the first London-Brussels service departed from the north London station which has undergone a £800 million facelift.

Thanks to the new rail link, journey times between London and Paris have been cut 20 minutes to two hours 15 minutes, while the journey between London and Brussels has come down 25 minutes to one hour 51 minutes.

Seeing off the Paris train at St Pancras, Eurostar chief executive Richard Brown said: "Today marks a new dawn for short-haul travel in Europe.

"Our move to St Pancras makes Eurostar even more accessible to travellers across Britain."

Eurostar had spent 13 years at Waterloo from where journey times to Paris were originally as long as three hours.