Thread by @GarethDennis

The last leg! Paris to York! 😭

(terrible PTI of course, as with all high speed European trains)

So little left of our 4000km epic from south east to north west Europe...

https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1433025455381172225?s=19

Well, this is true... I'm already getting giddy about passing through it, as I always do.

https://twitter.com/LaurentFourtune/status/1434538397335494662?s=19

We got up to some stuff in our half-day here...

https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1434534846055993348?s=19

Genuinely forgot we'd booked Standard Premier, and I have to say I'm glad of it... Not least for the (now eaten and definitely tasty) grub! Thanks @Eurostar!

Though @Eurostar - can you please fix the overhead screens (they are stuck on this) as I'd like to know how fast we are going and these e320s are Faraday cages for GPS!

Lovely sliding table action though, @SiemensMobility... No expense spared here! 🏆

oh oh oh oH OH OH OH OOOOOH 🚇 #chunnel

To my mind the Channel Tunnel is one of Europe’s greatest engineering achievements. So passing through it always gets me excited.

I picked out a beefy selection of highlights about its construction, history and current operations for @RAIL back in 2019:
garethdennis.medium.com/channel-tunnel…

(Shame about the fash fencing that we wouldn't need if we just provided unlimited legal routes for people who want to live in the UK to get into our country without risking their lives.)

Oh, and I threaded a TV show about it if that's the sort of thing you fancy (lots of nice archive footage):

https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1094248206731497473?s=19

le BIG BOI

So there's no overheads (incidentally the first heavy rail running lines without overheads I'm seeing for this whole trip) but the trains are still electric? How confusing.

This view is definitely more fun in the other direction...

(we've probably already arrived by the time these post, I'll continue shortly)

Having been on quite a few miles of high speed line over the last week, I've just realised that a major constituent cost element of new UK rail alignments must be that WE BURY THEM ALL IN MASSIVE CUTTINGS that cost the earth (literally)... 😖

(Ed: check this)

IT'S THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE!
(or would be if there wasn't a sound barrier)

Here's a bad picture of the Thurrock Viaduct working its way under and over the Queen Elizabeth crossing and the Dartford Tunnel respectively (not sure if in that order though):

We've arrived (at 6pm, only two hours after leaving Paris)... And what an arrival it is! 😍

Thanks @Eurostar and @StPancrasInt for welcoming us back after the better part of 4000km of travel... And in pretty decent style, too 🤩

From one glorious place to another, and this one does feel a bit more like home... Also this thread is catching up with real time again ⏳

This thread is back in real-time again, and whilst this @LNER #Azuma isn't reaching 186mph, we are travelling at a higher average speed than we were on the Frecciarossa...

125mph plus tight timetabling plus rapid station passes makes a lot of difference!

See!

(This thread covered our Rome to Paris leg.)

https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1434088263103483905?s=19

The ride quality is *much* worse here though, it has to be said. Sorry everyone at Hitachi/Network Rail, but my bum (and this glass of orange juice) doesn't lie.

Also: masks just aren't a thing here anymore, I see 😔

Frecciarossa 1000 loo doors!

Again, here's the reference:

https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1434107971856998404?s=19

Worth pointing out that the ride quality isn't a safety issue - there's a fifty-times increase in track tolerance requirements at the 200km/h threshold which will account for a lot of the difference.

(though I'd love to compare the East and West Coast Main Lines 😈)

We're nearly in York, which means I obviously have to dedicate all of this to my wonderful, wise and unwearying travelling companion, who has been dealing with my irrepressible and chaotic nonsense not just over the last three weeks, but for 6 years now.

Thanks, @JankovicDina 😘

It's (a very busy) York station! Long time, no see!

Finally, after much adventuring, we end both today and the whole holiday just as we started it... On @tierscooters to our corner of York 🛴💨

Time for bed. Thanks for following!