Eurostar’s inaugural run from Brussels to the newly reopened St Pancras Station in London clocked in at just 1 hour, 43 minutes and 53 seconds – a record breaking time for Eurostar’s service between the two business capitals. Rail travel may have looked for a time like the rustic remnants of a by-gone age. However, recent developments have helped the industry steam ahead in the 21st century. Eurostar’s record is just one of a host of examples of how speedier and increasingly high-tech trains are now providing a truly viable – not to mention greener – alternative to air and road travel.

Gathering speed across Europe

The new, speedier European service between London, Brussels, Lille and Paris comes courtesy of the completion of a 67 mile (108 km) high-speed line into London. Across Europe, high-speed rail lines are being expanded and train speeds are able to reach a lightning fast 198 mph (320 kph). In June, for example, a new high-speed line from Paris to the east of France opened, linking Paris to 23 destinations in Eastern France and 10 international destinations – reducing journey times by up to half.

17 cities can now be reached from Paris in under 2 hours, and a further 26 cities in 3 hours or less. Some stylish new stations have been built, while others – including Paris’s Gare de l’Est and Strasbourg – are getting facelifts. Passengers in some first class trains can now recline in carriages designed by fashion designer Christian Lacroix!

In Britain, express commuter services between London St. Pancras, Ashford and the Kent coast will be introduced in December 2009. A new fleet of Japanese Hitachi Class 395 trains will be able to travel at up to 140 mph (225 kph) between London and Kent, slashing the journey time between London and Ashford from a sluggish 83 minutes to a nimble 36.5 minutes.

Rest and go

The dwindling differences in journey times between taking the plane or going by air only serve to highlight the benefits of traveling by train. “There’s a lot of ‘dead’ time spent in airports – standing in check-in queues, clearing security and customs,” says Amanda Monroe, Media Relations Manager of Rail Europe. “Once you’re on a plane, there’s still limited space to work or use of mobile phones and Internet connections. Then when you arrive at your destination, there’s usually another wait to collect luggage, clear customs and then to transfer into the city centre, which is often some distance away." Comfort is also compromised as you are not as free to walk around the plane cabin as you are in a train carriage.

Get connected

Rail operators are being quick to update station and carriage technical services for commuters’ convenience. Wi-Fi connection is now available in all Eurostar terminals, and on board Thalys trains running from Paris to Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne. Wi-Fi is also available on some high-speed German ICE trains, with further plans to introduce it on the route from Frankfurt to Hamburg and Munich from the end of this year. French mainline stations, notably in Paris and Strasbourg on the new TGV Est line, already offer Wi-Fi connectivity. Monroe says there are plans to trial Wi-Fi, with a view to rolling it out on all TGV trains next year if tests proves successful. New TGV Est trains also have meeting points at the end of the carriages, which can be booked for meetings for several people. And with women’s safety in mind, select ‘women only’ compartments are now available on certain routes between France and Germany, Italy and Spain.

Services in the UK are being equally boosted. Virgin and First Great Western trains now boast useful power sockets (a godsend for knackered laptop or mobile batteries) and by next year, its Pendolino trains will have Wi-Fi on select routes.

Going green

Simon Bowens of the Transport and Climate Change Office of Friends of the Earth, says: “We’ve championed rail travel for some time because train carbon emissions are substantially less than those of planes.”

Bowens refers to a 2004 study showing that the CO2 emissions per passenger per journey from London and Edinburgh were 96.4 by plane, 71 by car and only 11.9 by high-speed electric train.

At Virgin Trains, Media spokesperson Jim Rowe points out that Virgin’s “Pendolino trains actually put back electricity – created by the braking system – into the national grid.”

The rail renaissance

The infrastructure surrounding rail travel is also enjoying a renaissance. Developers are jumping on board, rejuvenating areas around stations and improving facilities for passengers. At St Pancras International, Marriott International has created an upscale Renaissance hotel (a beautifully restored Grade I listed Victorian building) that will cater for business travellers as part of the stunning St. Pancras Chambers complex there in King’s Cross.

Meanwhile, the South-East’s highspeed Crossrail line may have been given the go-ahead by Gordon Brown, but funding is not yet set in stone. Network Rail is also upgrading the west coast main line, with the aim of cutting journey times between London, Birmingham and Manchester by 20 minutes by 2009, increasing train capacity on these routes.

With advance purchase rail fares between London and Manchester costing from little more than a tenner for a single journey (for savvy travellers who plan ahead and pick their journey times well or book their travel via Expotel), it’s not surprising that 60% of passengers travelling between the two cities now take the train. One things for sure – “There’s been unprecedented growth in the use of railways in the last decade,” says Jim Rowe for Virgin Trains.