The first Eurostar from England to France

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The first Eurostar train left London's Waterloo station heading for the Gare du Nord in Paris in November 1994. It was the first commercial passenger train to travel through the Channel Tunnel which had only been finished a few months earlier. Robert Priston was one of the drivers on that three-hour journey and he has been telling Bethan Head about that day.

Photo: one of the first Eurostar trains. Credit: AFP/Getty Images.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Bethanhead.
0:47.0	In 1994, the first scheduled rail services from London under the English Channel to France were launched.
0:53.2	The first Eurostar train pulled out of Waterloo station on the 14th of November 1994 at 823 in the morning
1:07.4	heading for the Garden Ord in Paris. The cheapest ticket
1:14.4	ticket cost 95 pounds around $152. And many passengers had booked their tickets
1:21.5	years in advance with some even dressing up for the occasion.
1:25.5	There was a lot of people that were in fancy dress, and there was even one guy dressed as a baked bean.
1:31.0	Presumably because baked beans are British? I don't actually know that.
1:35.1	Can't figure out the connection there.
1:37.1	Robert Priston, along with his co-driver Lionel Stevenson, was at the throttle of that first commercial Euro-star to France.
1:45.0	The channel tunnel had opened earlier in 1994 and was a huge engineering feat.
1:51.0	Ordinary passengers won't be traveling through it for several months.
1:54.0	The actual building of the tunnel proved less difficult than maintaining its finances.
1:58.6	It took more than six years to bore the three tunnels that now link folks that in Kent to Calais on the French coast.
2:05.0	Eleven huge boring machines were used to cut through the chalk mile at a depth of up to 130 feet beneath the sea bed.
2:12.0	Laser alignment ensured the tunnels met successfully in the middle.
2:17.0	The tunnel allowed cars and lorries to be carried on freight-style trains under the English Channel. It's also how Euro-star passenger trains
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.