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About us
HS1 Ltd is the organisation that owns the assets of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), now called High Speed 1.
High Speed 1 is the railway between St Pancras in London and the Channel Tunnel and connects with the international high speed routes between London and Paris, and London and Brussels. High speed domestic trains will also use the railway, providing a much improved commuter service between London and Kent from late 2009. The railway is also capable of carrying freight traffic. HS1 Ltd is the owner of the stations along the route, including the magnificently refurbished St Pancras International.
Key facts
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Distance
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Channel Tunnel to St Pancras: 109km
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Section 1: Channel Tunnel to Fawkham Junction: 74km
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Section 2: Southfleet to St Pancras: 39km
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Distance in tunnel: 26km (25% of route)
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Maximum design speed: 300km/hour
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In July 2003 a Eurostar train broke the UK rail land speed record on Section 1 of the CTRL, reaching 334.7km/hr.
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Tunnels
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London Tunnels (Islington to Dagenham): total 19km
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Longest single London Tunnel: 10.5km (Stratford to Ripple Lane)
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Thames Tunnel: 3km
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North Downs Tunnel: 3.2km
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Stratford Station Box: 1.1km
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Ashford International Station Box: 1.7km
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A Eurostar takes 38.4 seconds to go through North Downs Tunnel at 300km/hr.
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Quantities
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Ballast used: 850 000 tonnes
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General excavation: 14Mm3 (enough to fill London’s Wembley Stadium12 times)
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Structural fill: 5Mm3 (formation of embankments/increase height of embankments)
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Mitigation fill: 7Mm3 (formation of bunds for landscaping and to reduce airborne noise)
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Material transferred to non-CTRL uses: 1Mm3
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Bridges and viaducts
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Rail bridges: 60
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Road bridges: 62
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Footbridges: 30
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Thurrock Viaduct: 1.3km (beneath the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge)
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Medway Viaduct: 1.2km (alongside the existing and new M2 bridges, with a main span of 152m)
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Ashford Viaduct: 1.4km (over Great and East Stour Rivers and Ashford-Canterbury line)
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The CTRL has a total of 152 bridges
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A Eurostar train takes 15 seconds to cross the Medway Viaduct at 300km/
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Broad orders of cost
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Section 1 = £1.9 billion
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Section 2 = £3.9 billion
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Total = £5.8 billion
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The regeneration value of the project is estimated by London & Continental Railways (LCR) to be at least £9 billion
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Employment
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CTRL project workforce totalled some 8,000 persons (max) and consumed some 50 million man hours