London, Oct.11 : Britain's new railway -- High Speed 1 -- the first of its kind in over 100 years, will be inaugurated on November 14 this year.

The line has taken nine years, thousands of people and 50 million man hours to build.

With High Speed 1, the UK will be fully connected to the growing European high-speed network, a network that now stretches across 3,750 km (2,330miles) from The Netherlands and Germany, to Italy, Spain and beyond.

On November 14, Eurostar will move to its new home at St Pancras International. The station is being transformed, setting new standards for
a railway station in the 21st century. Taking inspiration from New York's Grand Central Terminal, St Pancras International will be "Europe's
destination station". It will be a place where the heart of London meets the heart of Europe; a place that people will want to visit ... even if
they're not catching a train.

More than just a railway, HS1 has leveraged more than 10.5 billion pounds of investment in regeneration schemes around the new international stations at Ebbsfleet, Stratford and St Pancras. Trains travelling on the high-speed line create up to ten times less carbon emissions than the low-cost airlines on equivalent journeys.

Thanks to the dedicated High Speed 1 line, journey times will be slashed by 25 minutes to only 2 hours 15 minutes to Paris, and 1 hour 51 minutes to Brussels. (ANI)