In readiness for the start of high-speed services from St Pancras International in November over the full length of ‘High Speed One’ — the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link — Eurostar has operated an inaugural passenger-carrying train from Paris to London in only 2 hours 3 minutes and 38 seconds.

The train carried around 350 invited guests, led by Eurostar Chief Executive Richard Brown, and Guillaume Pepy, Eurostar’s chairman and head of SNCF, France’s state railway company.

There was also a small party of paying passengers who had bought tickets. These had been donated by London and Continental Railways, which has built the £5.6 billion High Speed One line on time and on budget, and were first auctioned in August’s print edition of Railnews.  The auction contributed over £7,000 to the rail industry’s charity, the Railway Benefit Fund.

Among the group was David Morgan, chairman of the Heritage Railway Association and chairman of the North Norfolk Railway, who travelled from Paris Nord to St Pancras International wearing a top hat and Victorian frock coat once worn by the station master at Sheringham.

The inaugural Eurostar left Paris at 10.44 and was given special permission to operate up to 320 km/h (199 mph) instead of the usual 300 km/h (186 mph).

It passed through Lille in only 51 minutes and 41 seconds but was then slightly delayed approaching the Channel Tunnel by a temporary speed restriction due to recent subsidence, possibly caused by this summer’s excessive rainfalls.

The train passed from France to England in only 17 minutes and 25 seconds, as permission had been given for it to run in the Channel Tunnel at 180 km/h (112 mph) instead of the usual 160 km/h (100 mph).

After exiting the Tunnel, Eurostar number 3223 raced over the 68-mile High Speed One route to St Pancras International in only 29 minutes 25 seconds, an average pass-to-stop speed of 138.7 mph.

Without the speed restriction approaching Calais, the train had been on course for arrival in St Pancras in two hours exactly. Nevertheless, the actual time of 2 hours 3 minutes 38 seconds was still over 10 minutes faster than the planned journey time from 14 November.

When regular services are switched from Waterloo to St Pancras, the journey will take a two hours and 15 minutes, at a maximum speed of 186mph. Eurostar hopes the time-saving will help it increase passenger numbers from 8.3 million  this year to 10 million by 2010.