Editing Eurostar (section)

===Conception and planning===
{{Main |Channel Tunnel |Getlink |TransManche Link}}The history of the Eurostar brand can be traced to the choice in 1986 of a rail tunnel to provide a cross-channel link between Britain and France.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Noulton |first=John |date=February 2001 |title=The Channel Tunnel |url=http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr26/pdf/f38_nou.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Japan Railway & Transport Review |issue=26 |pages=38–45 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090410230451/http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr26/pdf/f38_nou.pdf |archive-date=10 April 2009 |access-date=10 May 2009}}</ref> A previous attempt to construct a tunnel between the two nations had begun in 1974, but was quickly aborted. Construction began afresh in 1988. [[Getlink|Eurotunnel]] was created to manage and own the tunnel, which was finished in 1993, the official opening taking place on 6 May 1994.<ref name="BBC openingceremony" />

In addition to the tunnel's [[Eurotunnel Shuttle|shuttle trains]] carrying cars and lorries between [[Folkestone]] and [[Calais]], the tunnel opened up the possibility of through passenger and freight train services between places further afield.<ref name="EuroTun His">{{Cite web |title=Our history |url=http://www.eurotunnel.com/ukcP3Main/ukcCorporate/ukcTunnelInfrastructure/ukcDevelopment/ukpHistory |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123153410/http://www.eurotunnel.com/ukcP3Main/ukcCorporate/ukcTunnelInfrastructure/ukcDevelopment/ukpHistory |archive-date=23 November 2010 |access-date=10 May 2009 |publisher=Eurotunnel}}</ref> [[British Rail]] and France's [[SNCF]] contracted with Eurotunnel to use half the tunnel's capacity for this purpose. In 1987, Britain, France and Belgium set up an International Project Group to specify a train to provide an international high-speed passenger service through the tunnel. France had been operating high-speed TGV services since 1981, and had begun construction of a new high-speed line between Paris and the Channel Tunnel, LGV Nord; French TGV technology was chosen as the basis for the new trains. An order for 30 trainsets, to be manufactured in France but with some British and Belgian components, was placed in December 1989.{{citation needed|date=April 2012}} On 20 June 1993, the first Eurostar test train travelled through the tunnel to the UK.<ref name="Eurost His" /> Various technical difficulties in running the new trains on British tracks were quickly overcome.<ref name="Eurobreakdown">{{cite news |last=Wolmar |first=Christian |author-link=Christian Wolmar |date=21 October 1994 |title=Channel train opens with a breakdown |work=The Independent |location=London |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/channel-train-opens-with-a-breakdown-1444085.html |url-status=dead |access-date=10 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109230236/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/channel-train-opens-with-a-breakdown-1444085.html |archive-date=9 January 2021}}</ref>