Hundreds of passengers left Paris, London and Brussels Monday morning on the inaugural public run of high-speed trains through the channel tunnel.
French and British railway officials hope the trains under the English Channel will eat into the heavy air traffic between Paris and London.The Eurostar passenger train left for its three-hour, six-minute ride to downtown London on schedule at 8:07 a.m. with 794 passengers aboard.
Ten minutes after leaving the Gare du Nord in Paris, the 18-car train hit its top speed of 187 mph. Later, it cut its speed to 100 mph as it passed through the 31.4-mile tunnel from a point near Calais, France, to Folkestone, England.
"I think it's great. I'm afraid to fly, so this is great," said Mara Roth, 34, of New York.
Other trains left London for Paris and for the three-hour, 15-minute trip to Brussels through the $16 billion tunnel, the world's largest engineering project.
All trains arrived without incident. The train from London got to Paris four minutes ahead of schedule.
Cabin attendants in yellow and blue uniforms designed by Pierre Balmain staffed the trains, each with four telephone cabins, two nursery areas for infants and a snack car in second class. Meals are served in first class, and Monday's fare featured a Franco-British mix of croissants, bread, ham, cheese and orange marmalade.
First-class passengers pay $311 for a round trip, and those in second class pay $248. If they reserve 14 days or more in advance, the cost is $152. Children younger than 12 travel for half price, and children younger than 4 go for free.
The prices are comparable to airfare between Paris and London.
On the cross-Channel ferries from Dover, England, to Calais, prices range from $29 for a day trip by a car full of travelers during the winter to a $240 round-trip ticket that allows stays up to a year.
Commercial service is beginning with two round trips a day on each route. Departures are expected about every hour when traffic reaches its capacity of eight passages per hour in the second half of 1995.
The Eurostar is a modified version of the successful French TGV high-speed train, built with a complex power system to adapt to French, British and Belgian electrical currents.
The so-called Chunnel has opened to passengers after numerous delays. Three test runs last month were marred by embarrassing technical problems.
"Le Shuttle," which ferries trucks through the tunnel, has been in service for several months. It will start carrying passenger cars later.
The Anglo-French company Eurotunnel, which built and operates the tunnel, said Monday it had revenues of $6.38 million in the three months ending Sept. 30. The company says delays in opening the Chunnel would cut projected revenues by about 75 percent for the year.