It might be possible to build a fast rail link from Ashford International to Gatwick and get in on the party. It could even be extended to Heathrow, interchanging with the main routes into London. But I suspect that this would never get support from BAA, which makes a lot of money from car parking.

derek, uxbridge, uk

Too bad we Americans are so completely stuck on being the center of the universe, otherwise we would be able to emulate the things that work.

Roger Picklum, Big Oak Flat, California, U. S. A.

Jim Wills: Cape Town To Buenos Aires? That'll be a heck of a tunnel, stops at South Georgia and Port Stanley?

Andrew Porter, Preston, UK

The point is the French are ahead of the Brits as per usual. Whatever Brown's and Labour's multiple failings let it not be forgotten that it was the Tories who twice vandalised the railway network. Without a certain "low cost" airline trips north would take longer than they did 20 years ago with BR.

Christopher Wright, Newcastle,

SNCF TGV's do not meet Channel Tunnel safety rules laid down by the Inter-Govermental Safety Commission.The world speed record was achieved on the new Paris-Est line, not the Paris-Lyon line.Energy used in a train journey is measured in kW hours (power in kW).Max traction power of Eurostar is 12.2MW

Peter M J Davies, Stafford, UK

Mr Ball - one person's subsidy (railways) is another person's investment (road network). It's odd how no-one ever describes any spending on road transport as 'subsidy' ....

Peter Gutfreund, London, UK

In response to Graham Rounce, the TGV which made the world record run in 2007, Paris to Lyon, consumed about 19,400 kW of electricity.
Peter Melia

Peter Melia, La Colle sur Loup,

Fast trains will soon be running services from London to Moscow and from Cape Town to Buenos Aires. A big plus for the environment. Fast trains are also a more civilized way to travel. Room to move is a big plus on long trips. Fantastic news.

Jim Wills, Brisbane, Australia

High speed trains to Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Geneva airports: don't leave out Brussels. I took the Eurostar in April to Brussels to connect for a flight to Tel Aviv. I came back the same way. Both trains and flights were on time.

Raphael Gee, London,

If you think seats on a short-haul flight are luxurious and the passengers pampered, you obviously haven't been on one in the last 7 years. I'd love to take the train for business trips to Europe, but I live in Manchester. Many years ago we were promised a Eurostar connection. I'm still waiting.

Mark, Manchester, UK

Still sucks - I looked at the cost of a Eurostar to Paris and then at the cost of Eurostar to Bordeaux via Paris. Yeah - it's cheaper to pay to go to Bordeaux and just get out at Paris. Train travel cost has just gone up thanks to "Simplification" of fares. It won't be useable until it makes sense.

James, Glasgow,

Thank God people are finally waking up to the fact High Speed Rail travel is the future.

As for George Ball's comments people tend to forget the nations road network is subsidised far more than the railways, so perhaps we should all ditch the car for being inefficient? No, thought you wouldn't.

Richard Lenthall, London, UK

This is all nice and fine, IF you live in London. But from there on, you are at the mercy of the UK "railway system", for which the powers that be in this country do not see the need for high-speed connections. Prices are highest, when people need the service most, so the CAR is usually cheaper.

Peter, Carlisle, UK

OK if your journey starts in Central London, I suppose.

Harry Collier

p.s. Where are the long-term and short-term car parks for travellers and their baggage leaving from St Pancras?

Harry Collier, Malmesbury,

I think it worth noting air fares can often be cheaper than rail fares now in the UK. The train operators always talk about their cheapest fare but can you actually find one? Flying BA from London to Manchester and back was cheaper than the train at the time of booking!

Bergman Coffey, Belfast,

The article is incredbly London-centric. The advent of Eurostar has driven airlines out of the Gatwick-Paris market and pushed journey times from the South Coast of Sussex to almost 8 hours door to door. It's less than 200 miles as the crow files which makes it a miserably slow average speed.

Bernard, Chichester,

I stopped flying to Paris after my first taste of Eurostar, way back in the '90s.

The sad thing is that the Labour Party remains locked in the past, with no sign of sensible planning for a UK TGV network.

DJ, Brill, UK

I certainly won't be taking a train from anywhere to 'enjoy' the Air France experience from one of the world's worst aiprorts.

Bill Atkins, Rehoboth Beach, USA

The government now needs to set about building a high speed line to the north and Scotland. It could have a maximum speed of 250km/h (140mph) because of the much shorter distances between cities here. There really should be no need to fly from London to other mainland UK destinations!

Luke, London, UK

Oi! Graham Rounce - that's Nuclear powered French stations not dirty old coal fired British power stations. Britain needs to join the 21st century and gets real.

Winston Smith, Edinburgh, UK

St Pancras T2 is about as barmy as the decision to terminate HS1 there.
With Eurostar's success let's abandon Crossrail/Snailrail and extend HS1 to Reading (Slough stop for Heathrow) and Watford Junction.
Built to a full French spec. HS1 is built to accommodate duplex (double decker) trainsets.

Peter Hooper, Windsor, UK

By the way, how much fuel does Eurostar use (indirectly from power stations)? You make it sound like it's fuel-free.

Graham Rounce, London, UK

Railways are the most subsidised form of transport because they are the most inefficient.

Whatever the future is, railways it ain’t.

George Ball, Diss,

One day all this will be fields.

John P-T, reigate,