Travelling to Europe on business or pleasure? Well, forget the so-called jet set…and join the train set.
Let the 186mph Eurostar express take the strain and you’ll swop bad-tempered, airport queues for a less stressful and more civilised form of transport.
Train travel is infinitely more comfortable than flying, involves less hassle with security checks and checking in, and thanks to an expanding network of high-speed services, faster than ever.

The Eurostar service, which opened in 1994, has made a huge impact on the ticket sales of airlines operating routes to the Continent - especially since the switching of the London terminal to the revamped St Pancras International and the cutting of journey times. Eurostar now claims more than two-thirds of the rail and air market for Paris and more than half the Brussels route.

Since November 14 last year it has whisked businessmen, home-owners and holidaymakers under the Channel in time for lunch at a French restaurant, German beer garden or canal bar in Amsterdam.
Journey times from London to Brussels, Lille and Paris have been slashed by 20 minutes compared to the previous service operated out of London Waterloo International.
In addition, new faster TGV services between Paris and Strasbourg and from Brussels to Amsterdam mean a saving of up to two hours.

Eurostar have also opened a new station at Ebbsfleet, just off the M25 at Dartford, with seven trains a day to Paris and five to Brussels. For holidaymakers and foreign home-owners, parts of France and Belgium are now easier and quicker to reach than many British resorts. Paris is just two hours and 15 minutes from London, and Amsterdam is just over four hours away, with a change in Brussels. Travelling time to Cologne, Germany’s fourth largest city, has been cut by an hour and two minutes, meaning you can get there in just over four hours, with a change at Brussels.
For destinations further away, you can reach Lyons, culinary capital of France, in four hours and 20 minutes.
Further south, Marseille is six hours and 30 minutes away, with Zurich just under nine hours away rather than the nine hours and 45 minutes it used to take.

For all you need to know about European rail travel, log on to http://www.seat61.com/, which is astonishingly comprehensive and informative. The website http://www.bahn.co.uk/ features on-line timetables for Germany and other parts of Europe. To book direct with Eurostar, with return fares to Paris from £59, log on to http://www.eurostar.com/ or phone 08705 186 186.