I took the Eurostar underneath the English Channel from Paris to London, and it felt more like takin
- Connecting England and France, the Channel Tunnel has been open to passenger traffic since 1994.
- Today it's possible to travel through it on Eurostar trains.
- I recently traveled through the "Chunnel" by train on the final leg of a cross-European journey that began in Istanbul.
- The experience felt more like a flight than a train journey.
- The trains are comfortable and have free WiFi, but I found the price to be a bit high.
- Still, for a once-in-a-lifetime experience — and the convenience — it's more than worth it for people who have the money and time.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Using it may seem commonplace now, but there was a time when the idea of a tunnel going underneath the body of water known as the English Channel was considered impossible.
Since 1994, the Channel Tunnel — better known as the Chunnel — has been connecting England with France. The 31.4 mile tunnel marks the first time Britain and mainland Europe have been connected since the last Ice Age, and several passenger and freight trains zip through it at speeds of up to 186 miles per hour.
I recently traveled through the Chunnel on the last leg of a train trip I was taking across Europe, from Istanbul to London.
Here's what it was like — and why I thought it felt more like taking a flight than a train, especially considering the €150 ($166) ticket.
As far as transport projects and feats of engineering go, the Channel Tunnel is kind of a big deal. Construction alone took six years.
Opened in 1994, the 31.4 mil-long tunnel was built for about £4.65 billion ($6 billion), equivalent to around £12 billion ($15.45 billion) today, according to The Telegraph.
It is regularly used by Eurostar passenger trains, which is the train I went on.
While construction took years, the idea of a tunnel connecting England and France goes back centuries. One of the first serious ideas was put forward in 1802 by French mining engineer Mathieu-Favier, who proposed a tunnel or pathway that would go across the English Channel, with an artificial island in the middle for changing horses (since cars and trains didn't exist back then and horses were how people got around).
Today, about 60,000 people travel through the Chunnel every day.
According to The Telegraph, about 60,000 people, 7,300 cars, and 4,600 trucks go through the Chunnel each day — adding up to about 21.9 million people, 2.7 million cars, and 1.7 million trucks per year.
In other words: it's pretty popular.
I went through the Chunnel on the final leg of a cross-European train trip that began in Istanbul.
I was moving to the UK for a new job with Insider, and eight days earlier had flown from Dubai to Istanbul, before boarding the first of several trains to take me across Europe. After more than a week on the road — er, rails — and seeing some absolutely amazing things, it felt strange that it was coming to an end.
Arriving from Zürich at Paris' Gare de Lyon station, I first needed to take the metro ...
The train from Zürich had pulled into Paris' Gare de Lyon station, meaning I had to find a way to quickly get to Gare du Nord since that was where the Eurostar trains for London departed from. I was worried the roughly two hours I had between arriving in Paris and having to leave again wouldn't be enough time if I needed to take a taxi and traffic was bad, but it turned out I was able to take a direct metro.
... So that I could reach Gare du Nord, where the Eurostar departs to London from.
The metro took under 10 minutes. I had plenty of time to make my way to the next train. Or so I thought.
I had to ask someone how to find the Eurostar trains, since they weren't very well-marked from elsewhere in the station.
Shuffling along through Gare du Nord with my two suitcases (that contained everything I owned) and squeezing through the thick crowds, there seemed to be few signs telling passengers where to go for the Eurostar trains.
Eventually I had to ask someone at an information booth. He said they were just down the hall to the right. While following his instructions was a simple matter, and he was indeed correct, I still thought signs would be more efficient.
Though I'd heard about high security and wondered if I'd be asked questions since I was moving to the UK, security was a breeze.
Armed with all sorts of legal documents, I was fully prepared for lengthy questioning from UK immigration officials and a rather thorough security screening process, especially since I'd just spent more than a year living in the Middle East.
I was delighted to be wrong on both accounts: the immigration officer merely took a quick glance at my passport before she waved me through, after which passing through the metal detector and having my bags go through the X-ray machine took barely two minutes. After under five minutes in total, I was through.
Once through, there was a whole private area that was like its own airport terminal ...
A long corridor filled with shops, cafes, restaurants, water fountains, and places to sit — the Eurostar terminal felt just like an airport departures lounge. Given that there only seemed to be a few people around, I was mystified as to how all those shops and places to eat stayed in business — surely rent in a station as busy (and nice) as Gare du Nord couldn't be cheap.
... Complete with airport-style signage.
Electronic signs letting passengers know which departures were from which gates, constant reminders not to leave baggage unattended — yep, I was in a place that felt awfully similar to an airport.
It wasn't super fancy, but it was still far nicer than I was expecting.
Insider's Alison Millington spent time in one of Eurostar's business class lounges in 2018. While this was nowhere near as fancy, for just a few minutes while waiting to board, I had no complaints — and besides, the architecture of Gare du Nord was absolutely gorgeous to look at.
Like at an airport, a voice over an intercom told us it was time for boarding. I followed the crowd down a long hallway and a couple flights of escalators ...
As soon as the announcement came in French and English, passengers lined up to show their tickets and pass through the gates to where the trains were. It was just like when people start queuing once boarding for a flight begins.
... But not before snapping a quick photo of the great view of the 'normal' train platforms.
Watching passengers come and go amid such a beautiful backdrop was absolutely spellbinding. For a moment, I almost felt like I was living 100 years ago, when people wore nice suits and dresses to travel and trains were seen as somewhat glamorous. It all just felt so... cinematic. It was no wonder films like "The Bourne Identity" and "Ocean's Twelve," as well as TV shows like "Gossip Girl," have filmed at Gare du Nord — though I did wonder how they were able to do so with so many passengers and trains (connecting to destinations across Europe) around.
I was surprised how long the train was. It was the longest train passenger train I'd ever seen.
Most of the trains I'd been on during my journey had been quite small — no more than five carriages or so at maximum, and sometimes (at least in the case of trains in eastern Europe compared to western Europe) even fewer. The Eurostar seemed to go on forever, like a giant snake or other serpentine creature made of shiny, cold metal.
Just like a flight, we boarded several minutes before the scheduled departure time.
Everything was so efficient, so orderly — especially when it came to boarding, and how everyone seemed to line up neatly instead of milling about the doors and squeezing in.
I was impressed.
Once inside, the overall design of the train's interior felt even more like being on a plane ...
The side-by-side, forward-facing seats with only a single narrow aisleway between them, and high, blue-colored chairs looked eerily similar to those you'd find on an airline — though unlike a plane, there were no seatbelts we had to put on. Even the overhead storage spaces were somewhat similar, minus the doors you had to reach up to open and slam shut.
... Though the luggage racks were a nice difference.
Everything I owned was coming with me to London, since I didn't know when, if ever, I'd return to Dubai. But my two suitcases were far too heavy to lift over my head, and too big to store under my seat. The spacious, sturdy luggage racks on either end of each carriage were a real lifesaver. They seemed to be for other people, too, considering they were quickly filled up.
There was an onboard magazine waiting in each seat that looked an awful lot like an inflight magazine ...
"Metropolitan" was the name of the onboard magazine found in the back of every seat. Possessing an (admittedly quite niche) interest in airline inflight magazines for many years, this seemed quite similar — it even had a route map and onboard menu near the back along with other pertinent passenger information.
... And TV monitors above the aisleway like on some older planes. But with free WiFi on board, I didn't get why they were there.
Instead of an inflight movie, the TV screens above the aisleway kept playing the same commercials for various deals and offers, a couple short videos about things to do in Paris and London, and facts about the train. I also found it a bit repetitive that the bottom of the screen constantly said "London" (or "Londres" in French); I hoped everyone on board knew they were going to London.
All told, I was really questioning what the purpose of the TV screens was, especially since there was free WiFi on board and everyone was watching things on their own devices.
The seats were also comfortable.
Sitting next to a window in seat 63 on wagon five, I'd spent a lot of time in a lot of different train seats during the previous eight days. But these were by far the most comfortable. Soft, high-backed, and wide, it felt more like sitting in a pre-loved (read: often-used) recliner than a seat on a train. It was so comfortable, in fact, I was constantly battling the urge to fall asleep (I famously fall asleep easily); a seat in economy class on a plane this was not.
Unlike a flight, however, we pulled out of the station with barely a sound.
Paris is of course a huge city, but I was amazed how quickly we seemed to be out of it and zipping through the bucolic, oft-romanticized French countryside. Then again, the Eurostar trains can travel at up to 186 miles per hour — and the all-time record, at least according to a message displayed on one of the TV screens, was about 208 miles per hour. But I couldn't get over just how quiet the train was considering how fast it was going.
The toilets were also far more spacious.
Not only were the toilets large, they were clean. That was a significant upgrade from some of the trains I had recently been on, which looked terrifying, and smelled terrible. The toilet on the Eurostar smelled strongly of bleach and cleaning products, but I'd take that over... other smells.
The train was perhaps the quietest I had ever been on.
Hardly a rattle, creak or squeak was to be heard. It might very well have been the quietest train I'd ever been on. With little in the way of a science or engineering background, I wondered what made it so quiet.
However, the food and drink prices seemed incredibly expensive.
According to the menu in the back of Metropolitan, a latte was £2.70, or almost $3.50, while a double espresso was £3.20, or more than $4.10. I was glad it was only a short trip, and didn't need to buy anything. But it did serve as a good lesson in that, if I were to be on the Eurostar for one of its longer journeys (for example, it also can go from London past Paris and on to Amsterdam) in the future, then I'd bring my own snacks.
I was surprised there was no dining car like there had been on the other trains I'd been on, though I was told things looked a bit different in Business Premier.
A woman named Michelle was working behind the counter in what counted as the "dining" car, which was really just an area where people could walk up to a counter to get coffee, snacks and sandwiches. While a steady stream of customers came in, they took their purchases with them back to their seats — there was no place to sit down and eat or drink. That surprised me — every other long-distance train I had been on during my journey had a dining car.
Even if the tables are a bit nicer if you're traveling in Business Premier, having to eat in your seat was yet another thing the Eurostar had in common with a flight.
The journey was so quiet and smooth, and since it was already getting dark, I didn't even realize we'd entered the Chunnel until we were almost out of it.
Since we were going so fast, we were out of the Chunnel in just a few minutes — I reckoned about 25 minutes in total. There also wasn't really anything to see: it was just a very long, very dark tunnel. Although it was cool to say we had passed underneath the English Channel — connecting Britain to mainland Europe for the first time since the last Ice Age many thousands of years ago — visually it was a bit of a letdown.
No one on the train seemed very excited we had traversed the Chunnel, either — perhaps they were Chunnel-travel veterans, and this was "old hat" (rather routine, to use some English slang) to them.
Post-Chunnel, we zipped through the English countryside at incredible speed ...
We zoomed through the southeast English county of Kent as darkness descended all around us, the gathering black pierced by the twinkling of lights from solitary streetlights, cute little homes, and towering apartments. It was an entirely pastoral, unquestionably calming scene. It was hard to imagine we'd soon be arriving in the middle of the biggest city in western Europe.
... And pulled into London almost as suddenly as we departed Paris. The entire journey had barely taken two hours.
There was but a single announcement broadcast over the train's intercom that we would soon be arriving in London. Within about five minutes, we pulled to a stop in St Pancras, near the beating heart of one of the world's greatest cities. Yet again like a plane, getting off the train seemed to take ages, as everyone stood to grab their bags and slowly move on into the dazzling, bright lights of the cavernous station, which seemed like an enormous cathedral of light.
I'd made it. My journey, all the way across Europe by rail — from Istanbul to London — had come to an end. Heart aflutter and spirits soaring, one (sand-filled, since there's a lot of that around Dubai) chapter of my life had ended, and another was beginning. Only time would tell what new adventures in this new land would await.
Overall, though the lack of security was convenient and we arrived right in central London instead of having to travel from an airport, I thought the €150 price was a bit high.
The €150 ($166) I paid for the one-way ticket on the Eurostar from Paris to London was far more than any other train ticket I bought on my journey (the second-most expensive, from Zagreb, Croatia to the Alpine micronation of Liechtenstein, cost €119.20 or $132). Sure, the journey was incredibly comfortable, but it's easy to buy a roundtrip plane ticket between Paris and London for under $100.
Still, it was a bucket-list experience I would recommend it to anyone who has the money and time.
The cost made it feel impractical to do on a regular basis, but I owed it to myself to truly travel across Europe by train and take the Chunnel — it would feel like cheating if I were to take trains from Istanbul to Paris, and then fly the rest of the way. The relative lack of security checks and ability to get on and off in the middle of sprawling major cities, instead of the outskirts where the vast majority of London and Paris' airports are located, was an advantage.
So... would I do it again? If I had the money and time, sure. For a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it was more than worth it.
Read more:
I visited Istanbul's gigantic new airport, and I could hardly tell I was in Turkey
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