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Longest booked Eurostar timings pre-HS1?

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Sad Sprinter

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Were there any Eurostars that were booked to run between London and Paris between 3-4 hours pre-HS1? I imagine trains that stopped at Ashford, Calais and Lille must have been fairly slow.
 
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Went on it once from Waterloo, just crawled to the tunnel, then once out like a different world. That might have been 3 hour trip
 

steamybrian

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I have in my archives a Eurostar timetable for 1999.
Fastest journey time non stop London Waterloo- Brussels was 2 hours 40 minutes.,London to Paris 2 hours 55 minutes.
For the stop at Ashford add 5 minutes.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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Eurostars have been known very occasionally to divert over classic lines in France via (eg) Lens and Arras, rejoining LGV Nord south of Arras.
In the early days, before the Belgian section opened (1997), the Eurostar route from Lille to Brussels was on the classic and very slow line via Tournai and Ath.
So at that time, only about 25% of London-Brussels was on an HSL route (Calais-Lille).
 
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mackeral1234

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Did a Waterloo to Paris in 1996 about a month or so after the fire and it took 5hrs.

Post HS1 did St Pancras to Disneyland (again after the fire of 2008) and it took 4hrs 30 going and about 4hr15 back…

but that was due to the fire in the tunnel
 

Bald Rick

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From memory, the trip in the early days was a shade over 3hr to Paris, and 3h15 to Brussels.

Very few stopped at Calais.
 

181

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According to my diary of the trip, my first Eurostar journey, Waterloo to Brussels on a Sunday in October 1995, left on time at 08.43, ran via the Catford loop and Maidstone, and arrived on time at 13.17 -- 3 hours 34 given the time difference. The return journey was on a Tuesday morning; I didn't record the arrival time at Waterloo, but it ran via Tonbridge and Herne Hill and it appears that I got to Surbiton about 4 hours after leaving Brussels.

There was a stop at Lille in both directions, although not for passengers on the way back.
 
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