When it first began in 1994, the Eurostar train journey from London to Paris had three parts. First, there was the dawdle from Waterloo station through Kent on low-speed commuter track. Then there was the stretch in the Channel tunnel. Finally, you would emerge into daylight and high-speed France.

The train would accelerate until, just when you thought it might take off and fly, a voice would announce: “Mesdames et messieurs, nous avons atteint notre vitesse maximum de 300 kilomètres à l’heure”, which means “Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our maximum speed of 186 miles an hour”, although the real translation was “na-na-na-na-na”.