St Pancras heralds new age of railway romance

The Queen will usher in a new era of railway romance tonight when she formally opens the new Eurostar terminal at St Pancras station.

High-speed services do not transfer from Waterloo until 14 November, but travel experts already predict a new boom in demand for international train services in an era when flying has never been more stressful.

Some £800 million has been spent on restoring the William Barlow designed station to its Victorian glory, but with 21st century touches such as the world's longest champagne bar and a daily farmers' market.

The opening of the new-look station - and last part of the rail link to the Channel Tunnel - will shave 20 minutes off journey times to Eurostar's direct destinations: Lille, Brussels, Paris, Disneyland Paris, Avignon and Bourg St Maurice in the French Alps.

It also brings much closer short-haul destinations that require a change at Lille or Paris. Many of these can be reached in the same or less time than a flight from Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted, once check-in and security are factored in.

For example, the journey time to Bruges in Belgium comes down to three hours 20 minutes, Reims in Champagne country to three hours 42 minutes and Dijon in Burgundy to five hours five minutes.

Sue Ockwell, spokeswoman for the Association of Independent Tour Operators, said: "It really is the age of the train again. Eurostar has had a massive impact. Many of the short-break operators who have tried it are completely sold on it. I had to fly to Paris last week and I had the most pig-awful journey. It took me 90 minutes to get from Charles de Gaulle airport and I swore I would never do it again.

"It is so sexy to arrive at the Gare du Nord and be taken by taxi straight to the hotel - you walk out of the door and you are in central Paris immediately. People come to see the train journey as part of their holiday. They will never look on their flight in that way."

The further cut in journey times means that Lille and Brussels will be within striking distance for daily commuters.

There are already estimated to be several hundred weekly Eurostar commuters, but the swifter trips mean some daily international work journeys are inevitable. Lille is now as close or closer to London than Margate, Portsmouth and Salisbury in terms of journey time, while Brussels vies with York, Gloucester and Christchurch.

Eurostar is also making a big bid for travellers suffering from "green guilt" about flying. It claims its 186mph trains will be carbon neutral from next week, as the firm will offset all the carbon emissions they create. It points to independent research showing that an international rail passenger creates a tenth of the carbon of someone taking a flight.

A British Airways spokesman said the green claims for Eurostar had to be taken "with a pinch of salt" because of the assumptions underpinning them.

He added: "Paris and Brussels remain popular destinations with about 70 flights a week each from London. There are no plans to reduce those numbers."

There are currently about 13 million international rail journeys a year in Europe, of which Eurostar accounts for about eight million.