AROUND 1 000 guests were invited to St Pancras on November 6 to watch Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II perform the formal reopening of the magnificently-restored terminus, along with Section 2 of the 109 km Channel Tunnel Rail Link that links it to Europe's expanding network of 300 km/h lines (RG 11.07 p697).
Restoration and extension of the original station has cost £800m. Her Majesty said 'this project is a wonderful illustration of what can be achieved through working in partnership, and says a good deal about how we can take a 21st century approach while at the same time having due consideration of our heritage'.
The last Eurostar pulled out of Waterloo International at 18.12 on November 13, and the first revenue service left St Pancras at 11.01 on the following day. Eurostar says more than 1 million seats have already been sold on trains from St Pancras, raising the prospect of traffic reaching 10 million passengers a year by 2012.
- CAPTION: Passengers emerge into the St Pancras undercroft from the platforms above following the arrival of the 20.59 Eurostar from Brussels Midi on November 14
