High Speed Rail Service Begins Operating from St Pancras in LondonFaster, more frequent, and more punctual high speed Eurostar trains between London and Brussels and Paris began operating on 14th November, 2007 as phase two of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL2), now known as High Speed 1, was officially opened. The new St Pancras International station in central London opened to the public at 9:00 am (British time) and the first train departed for Paris at 11:03 am. Three minutes later, the first commercial passenger train left for Brussels before the first arrival from the same city pulled into St Pancras, at 11:09 am.The first train arrived at Gare du Nord station in Paris on schedule at just before 2:15 pm French time.It was named Tread Lightly, after Eurostar's environmentally-friendly "green" campaign aimed at cutting its carbon dioxide emissions by 25% by 2012. Travelling on board Eurostar trains, passengers will have the extra reassurance of knowing that they are making far less environmental impact compared with flying.Rail Link Engineering (RLE), a consortium of Arup, Bechtel, Halcrow and Systra, were together responsible for the project management, consents, design, procurement, construction management and commissioning of the line. Visit www.arup.com, www.bechtel.com, www.halcrow.com and www.systra.com Photo courtesy of London & Continental Railways. Copyright NPA Group BenefitsThe 109 km link from the Channel tunnel to the newly-renovated and extended St Pancras station signals the completion of Britain's first major new railway for more than a century. It also means a major logistical exercise for Eurostar, moving overnight from its present London terminal at Waterloo, the station on the south side of central London which has been the British end of the line since services began in 1994, to St Pancras and moving all maintenance and repair facilities from North Pole in west London to Temple Mills in east London. The switch to St Pancras, on the north side, will make it easier for passengers from the English Midlands, northern England and Scotland to connect to the continent. Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip unveiled the new St Pancras station on 6th November.The new railway from St Pancras, which has had an GBP800 million facelift, is able to handle up to eight Eurostar trains per hour each way. It is possible to run twice the number of Eurostars to Paris and Brussels at peak times from St Pancras because of the greater capacity of the new line. The new High Speed 1 rail line between St Pancras and the tunnel under the English Channel enables Eurostar trains to hit their full speed of 300 km/hour. Thanks to the new link, the London-Paris non-stop journey time is being shaved by 20 minutes to two hours 15 minutes, while the London-Brussels journey becomes 25 minutes faster at one hour 51 minutes.The routeThe line has been one of the largest construction projects in Europe. From the mouth of the Channel tunnel, the route goes over and sometimes under hill and dale, traversing farmland and towns, then dips through a 2.5 km tunnel beneath the River Thames. Approaching London, it runs along a 1.3 km viaduct under the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, then plunges into a tunnel near Dagenham and continues underground for 10.5 km to a new international station at Stratford in east London. It then heads into another 7.5 km tunnel before coming out into the light near St Pancras station.Altogether, the line is running in around 26 kilometres of tunnels, 4,134 metres of which are cut-and-cover tunnels. These cut-and-cover tunnels can be categorized as approach structures to bored tunnels; tunnels to overcome urban constraints like roads, railways and adjacent structures; tunnels to overcome environmental constraints; and station boxes. Click here. Section 1The 74 km first phase, including a 4 km spur line, from the Channel tunnel to Fawkham Junction opened in September 2003, with trains whizzing along high speed lines as far as north Kent and then trundling over domestic track into Waterloo station. The first phase set new records in 2004 with 89% punctuality, 7.2 million passengers, and market shares of 68% on the Paris route and 63% on the Brussels route. The first stage includes the 3.2 km-long 160 sq m North Downs tunnel, a single tube constructed using sprayed concrete lining method with a conventional 350 mm-thick unreinforced concrete permanent lining. Read E-News Weekly 39/2003. Section 1 also includes 12 short cut-and-cover tunnels. Section 2Instead of rolling in from the coast then clunking past the rooftops and grimy railway arches of south London, passengers will now speed underground across the capital. The 39 km final section runs from Southfleet Junction to St Pancras station. In majority, the tunnels on section 2 have been bored by eight tunnel boring machines, mainly under urban London. The London tunnels are twin 7.15 m-internal diameter tunnels lined with precast concrete segments, initially running 7.5 km from the west portal at King's Cross to the west end of the 1 km-long Stratford box, and then continuing from the east end of the Stratford box for another 10 km under Barking before they emerge at the Ripple Lane portal. Click here.The first TBM put into action was a 95 m-long, 1,100-tonne Herrenknecht machine used by contractors Murphy and Hochtief. It began work in July 2002, setting out from Swanscombe in north Kent toward Essex under the Thames. Its 8.15 m-diameter cutter head sliced through alluvium, terrace gravels and chalk at a depth of up to 40 m below the surface of the river. Milly the Muncher Cruncher, as the machine was dubbed, bored through around 100 m per week and completed the first of two 2.5 km tunnels under the river in March 2003. As it advanced it placed over 16,000 concrete ring segments behind it to reinforce the tunnel. Read E-News Weekly 48/2002. Visit www.herrenknecht.comTunnelling under London began in October 2002 from Stratford when the first 120 m-long Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) TBM named Annie by local schoolchildren, was launched by contractor Nishimatsu-Cementation Skanska. Their journey has seen Annie and her sister Bertha bore 7.5 km of twin tunnels from Stratford in east London westwards to the King's Cross railway lands just north of St Pancras, passing successfully beneath London Underground's Highbury and Islington tube station during their passage under Newham, Hackney and Islington. Click here. Visit www.khi.co.jp/products/infrastructure/civil_engineering_e.htmlAlso travelling from Stratford, TBMs Brunel and Hudson, built by Wirth, drove 4.7 km eastwards under London Underground's Central Line, the Great Eastern Line and residential areas of Maryland and Forest Gate before breaking through into a ventilation shaft at Barrington Road in Manor Park. The contractors were Costain, Skanska and Bachy Soletanche. Click here. Visit www.wirth-europe.comFinally, the most easterly stretch of the London tunnels has seen contractor Nuttall-Wayss & Freytag-Kier drive TBMs Maysam and Judy, built by Lovat, 5.3 km from Dagenham to Barrington Road beneath the London, Tilbury and Southend (LT&S) line, the District Line and Barking station without causing any disruption to rail services. About 1.6 million tonnes of spoil was removed from Stratford to complete the 19 km of London tunnels. Visit www.lovat.comThe two shafts at Barrington Road saw the safe arrival of the four TBMs (two Wirths and two Lovats) which together excavated 10 km of twin tunnels. One shaft, which provides permanent ventilation for the high speed, was the meeting point of Brunel from Stratford and Judy from Dagenham, while a temporary access shaft received Hudson and Maysam. The massive Stratford station is a sunken box in the ex-railway lands just to the north of the current Stratford station. Stratford International is key to the London 2012 Olympics. Although Stratford International has been completed along with the rest of the infrastructure, it will not open until 2009. This is the result of money-saving measures.Construction of the line has been completed for GBP5.8 billion, within the GBP6.1 billion ceiling for the budget, and ahead of the deadline of the end of this year. Click uk/21. To read a special issue of the Arup Journal on the project, visit www.arup.com/arup/journal.cfm?pageid=4375. Visit www.highspeed1.com, www.lcrhq.co.uk and http://stpancras.eurostar.com/en-gb 47/07.