Eurostar an underground force

THE journey is uneventful, with neither Tom Cruise nor Hercule Poirot making an appearance aboard the speeding Eurostar train, writes Jodie Minus.

A very fast train ... the Eurostar can travel through the "Chunnel" at 270km/h

AT the climax of the film Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise, as intelligence agent Ethan Hunt, chases a baddie on to the roof of the Eurostar, en route from London to France.

As the pair battle it out – hurtling ever closer to the Channel Tunnel at around 270km/h – a helicopter arrives to help the baddie escape. Not to be outsmarted, Cruise tethers the chopper to the train, forcing it to follow the Eurostar as it disappears into the tunnel. The scene ends with the chopper, and the baddies, exploding. Cruise, his toothy grin, and the Eurostar, remain intact.

Filmmakers have a long history of setting their stories on trains. Some of the better known include Sidney Lumet's 1974 adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, the 1985 action adventure Runaway Train, and Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film noir classic Strangers on a Train, based on Patricia Highsmith's novel about pro tennis player Guy Haines who, as the title suggests, meets a stranger on a train. The stranger offers to exchange murders: he will kill the tennis player's wife if Guy will kill the stranger's father. Guy thinks the stranger is joking but, as it turns out, he is a psychopathic mama's boy who intends to carry out the plan.

I'm not sure what bad guys, murderers and psychopathic mama's boys look like, but as I wait for the Eurostar at the Waterloo international train terminal in London, I keep an eye out for them anyway.

The Eurostar began travelling between London and Europe in 1994 following the completion of the Channel Tunnel the same year. The notion of establishing an underground link between the UK and continental Europe had first been considered in 1802. But it took a remarkable feat of laser-guided precision engineering to construct the 50.5km "Chunnel", which is the second-longest rail tunnel in the world (its 39km undersea section is the longest of its kind).

The Eurostar takes just 2 ½ hours to travel from London to Paris, and because the train arrives right in the heart of the city at Gare du Nord, passengers can avoid expensive taxi fares to and from far-flung airports.

In November this year, the Eurostar terminal in London will move from Waterloo to historic St Pancras station, which is being restored and upgraded. The move will coincide with the completion of the UK high-speed line, which will cut travelling time between London and Europe by 20 minutes.

Further reason for travellers to choose Eurostar over air travel is its relatively small ecological footprint per passenger. According to independent research commissioned by Eurostar, each passenger on a return flight between Heathrow and Charles de Gaulle airports generates 122kg of carbon dioxide, compared with just 11kg for a traveller on the same Paris-London return journey with Eurostar.

There are three ticketing options on the train: standard, leisure select and business premier. The seats in the middle option are much the same size as the standard class but have the inclusion of "at-seat" dining, as opposed to having to visit the bar and buffet carriage. Business premier is roomier and includes access to the terminals' club lounges.

Unfortunately, for someone like me, with a yearning for excitement and intrigue, nothing eventful happens on my way to Paris. There are no psychopathic mama's boys. The journey is smooth and quiet as I gaze out the window watching London's urban sprawl all the way to Ashford in Kent, where we disappear into the tunnel's darkness. When we emerge on the other side of the English Channel, the scenery is dramatically different: wheat-coloured fields dotted with the pointy-roofed farmhouses of the French countryside near Calais.

Arriving at Gare du Nord to the heartening song of French voices and the mingled scent of Gitanes and cologne, I reflect that it might have been uneventful but at least the mission is possible.

Jodie Minus was a guest of Eurostar.