On the 14 November the new international terminal at St. Pancras was official opened by Her Majesty the Queen. Apart from being the culmination of an £800m renovation exercise it also heralded the start of regular high speed train services between the UK and Continental Europe. Already journey times have been slashed and the fastest services are routinely whisking passengers to Paris, in 2 hours 15 minutes, Brussels, in 1 hour and 51 minutes and Lille, in 1 hour and 20 minutes.
When Eurostar launched the new services it not only promised fast times between the major city destinations it also promised to become the world's first rail service - and the world's largest transport operator - to go carbon neutral. Unlike other schemes where the customer is asked to volunteer to offset CO2 emissions at their own expense, Eurostar will not charge a penny extra.
Apart from the carbon offsetting issues, it is claimed that rail travel is greener than flying. An example often quoted is of the traveller going from London to Paris on Eurostar. Apparently the journey generates 10 times less carbon dioxide for each person undertaking the journey. Other more tangible benefits include the avoidance of the check in hassles at the airport; travel in comfortable seats with plenty of leg room (essential if you are over 6 foot like the author) and a city centre to city centre journey. Further more, if you tire of slaving over your computer on the way, you can look out of the window and see some delightful scenery. All this and a clear conscience too!
Clearly, the new Eurostar services do offer a viable alternative to air travel and that is why Ambient is developing a series of packages that will open up the European meetings, incentives and conference market to organisations looking for a 'green' alternative.