uppose you live in Paris or London and desire, or need, to visit London or Paris, it's something of a pain in the butt to fly from the one capital to the other; it's required that you be at the airport 2 hours before the scheduled flight. The journey to the airport can take ages (you need to put aside at least an hour to reach each airport). Or you can take the Tube in London or the Metro in Paris to the railroad station in the center of London or Paris and take Eurostar. When my wife, Alana, and I did it, the journey took just three hours. Comfortable, convenient, pleasant, well-catered (you can have pretzels on the aircraft). Concurrent with fewer and fewer aircraft being on time, the railroad is remaining true to its timetable ...except, it is getting quicker and even more reliable. The 18-coach Eurostar train set a new record just this week, reaching speeds of more than 200 m.p.h. it completed the journey from Paris to London on a new dedicated high-speed route in just seconds over two hours.