Howardh
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 May 2011
- Messages
- 8,191
Because the speed would be severely reduced? Just imagine if you could do manchester or Leeds to Paris or Amsterdam at Eurostar/HS2 speeds throughout most of the journey without being curtailed to around 100/125 for 200 miles of it!!Walking from Euston to St. Pancras is hardly 'crossing London'; King's Cross to St. Pancras is barely crossing a road. I'll grant you Paddington is a schlep.
As for how do I know, let's see how many direct North of London Eurostar services are running... answer, zero. The infrastructure already exists for such journeys; it was built into St. Pancras international throat. Eurostar could extend services to Birmingham or Manchester or Leeds, just as they have to Amsterdam and Marseilles. But they have concluded that they aren't worth running. They offer few advantages over the relatively easy transfer already available. There is no large unmet demand for direct services. The best thing to do would be to improve the transfer between stations - better walking route, travelators, PRT etc.
Should add, of course, that any delay on your first leg means you miss your connection; that might not be too significant, it could be very significant if it's the last train or you had a flight to catch in Paris or Brussels. Of course the direct train could hit delays, but at least you are still on that train and don't have to maul around findinganother.