Eurostar has launched a new state-of-the-art train capable of travelling at 320 kilometres an hour.
The Channel Tunnel train, Siemens e320, will enter service next year, allowing passengers to make the 306-mile trip from Paris to London in just two hours.
When services began 20 years ago, just two trains a day plied the route, taking 2 hours and 50 minutes.
The duration was reduced to 2 hours and 23 minutes when the high speed line in Kent opened and later to 2 hours and 14 minutes when the line was completed in 2007.
Today between 15 and 17 services daily, running at up to 300 kph, connect Paris and London.
The new train, built by the German company Siemens, can take 900 passengers. Eurostar has ordered a total of 17 new e320s.
The launch comes on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the start of Eurostar services in November 1994.
The trains are described as being "inter-operable", meaning they can run across diverse European signalling systems, opening up the potential for a whole range of new direct services between the UK and European city centres.
In May next year, a new year-round service will go to Provence, stopping at Lyon, Avignon and Marseille.
That will be followed at the end of 2016 by the launch of a route to Amsterdam with stops in Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam's Schiphol airport along the way.
Free wifi is on all trains, along with power points and USB sockets on all seats.
Passenger numbers topped 10 million just last year, giving it around an 80% share of the travel market between London to Paris or to Brussels.
