Queen to Open £800m St Pancras Station

The UK's St Pancras station in London will be officially opened by HM the Queen tomorrow following the station's £800m facelift.

The project also marks the arrival of high-speed rail in the UK, cutting journey times to Paris by 20 mins to two hours and 15 minutes and to Brussels by 25 mins to one hour and 51 mins.

The station – due to open on 14 November - will be home to state-of-the-art technology, including Wi-Fi, touch-screen monitors and passenger information screens in all of its 60 retail outlets.

The high-speed rail line (HS1) has 67 miles (109km) of new high-speed tracks running between the coastal town of Folkestone and London.

Eurostar and domestic services to Kent, scheduled to start in 2009, will run alongside mainline services and six tube lines at the station.

The project represents the largest single construction in British history delivered on time and within budget, writes the BBC.

By staff writer