This was us entering the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) on its Calais side in France.

This was on board the newer Eurostar e320 Siemens Velaro EMU trains. These trains were purchased to supplement the existing fleet of Eurostar e300 EMU trains that were made by GEC-Alsthom between 1992 and 1996 but had undergone heavy refurbishment and modernisation by Pininfarina S.p.A. The restriction posed by them is the lack of space for additional signalling equipment and voltage support that would allow them to operate in Germany and the Netherlands. On the other hand, these newer Siemens Velaro trains are able to run on the 15 kV AC overhead lines in Germany and the 1.5 kV DC overhead lines in the Netherlands.

These e320 trains are the longest in the UK at 400m and also the fastest. They also feature nice ceiling mounted LCD displays and support the Eurostar Odyssey Augmented Reality game when connected to the free on-board Wi-Fi system.

The numbers that follow the letter 'e' refer to the top service speed in kph or km/h, therefore this one can hit a top speed of 320 km/h. On both my ride from London St Pancras International to Gare du Nord in Paris and on the return trip aboard this faster e320 trains we reached a maximum of 295 km/h on certain stretches of railway in France. The highest speed reached in Britain was circa 288 km/h.

At the present time, the Eurostar services go through Lille in France, which is a distance off the direct line of travel between Paris and Calais. There are plans to build a new route via the town of Amiens as this direct route will save 20 minutes of travel time, bringing the journey down to just under 2 hours.

It is easier to achieve a GPS lock from mobile devices in these older e300 trains than on the e320.