New speed record

last updated 8 January 2015

London

A Eurostar train this week obliterated the record for the quickest train journey between Paris and London. The train raced at an average speed of 186 mph from the Gare du Nord in Paris to St. Pancras station in London in just 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 39 seconds—nearly half an hour under the previous record. The record is due to a new, high-speed track on the British side. Eurostars have been running at high speeds in France for years, but Britain finished its new track only this year. In 1993, in a swipe at Britain, then–French President Francois Mitterand announced the coming opening of France’s track by saying, “We will set off at high speed across the northern plains, then push into the Channel Tunnel, and afterwards we will be able to dream at a very slow speed in Britain to admire the landscape.”