An upgrade for London’s St. Pancras station

Beginning Nov. 14, Euro- star trains will depart for Paris and Brussels from the glamorous new international terminal at St. Pancras in north-central London. And they will run even faster.

As planners began to prepare the city’s infrastructure for the 2012 Olympic Games, the present Eurostar terminal at Waterloo was deemed too far from connections to central London and main lines to the rest of the country.

The Victorian St. Pancras stood in for King’s Cross in the Harry Potter films, where the scholars of wizardry boarded the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9 3/4 . (The real King’s Cross is actually St. Pancras’ more prosaic neighbor. )

Pancras’ cathedral-like structure, viewed as avant-garde on its completion in 1868, now fronts a futuristic terminal designed for more than mere rail travel.

“The challenge was to merge the 19th century building with a 21st century extension,” says Shirin Homawala, a representative of London and Continental Railways, which won the contract to redesign and run the terminal.

Arriving riders will see a Champagne bar, more than 300 feet long, on the west side of the platform, Homawala said. A glass-and-steel vaulted roof has transformed the old track area into a light-filled concourse with upscale shops, pubs and fine restaurants. A rendezvous area is watched over by a bronze sculpture of an embracing couple.

Journeys between London and the Gard du Nord in Paris, which now take 2 1/2 to three hours, will be about 20 minutes faster. A nonstop train from London to Paris will make the journey in two hours, 15 minutes. A trip to Brussels will take one hour, 50 minutes.

Fares start at $120 for a round trip from London to Paris and go up to $680 round trip for a business-class ride, including a three-course meal.