Eurostar has carried more than 59 million passengers between London, Ashford, Calais, Lille, Paris, Brussels, Disneyland Paris, Avignon and the French Alps since services started November 1994 and the new St Pancras International Station is expected to open up continental Europe to an even wider audience of travellers. When the service moves to St Pancras, travellers can expect faster journey times and more services in each direction each day as well as greater accessibility to continental Europe from the North of England.



"Earlier this year we installed the UK's first external foreign currency High Street facing ATM in Dundee," explains Mike Smith, Director at Raphaels Bank. "The new ATM at St Pancras International further builds on our commitment to provide travellers with easy and convenient ways to get their travel money."



Raphaels Bank, a subsidiary of the Lenlyn Group which also owns International Currency Exchange (www.iceplc.com), the leading global retail foreign exchange provider, has developed its own platform to provide the services working with a number of industry leading providers. The company has been at the leading edge of currency dispensing ATM's since the launch of its first machines in December 2006. Raphaels is an issuing and acquiring member of Visa and MasterCard and is a member of LINK interchange network.



Smith concludes, "Like the ICE bureaux de change, the new ATMs will be open to Eurostar passengers from the first train to the last giving them convenient access to Euros whenever they want them, not just High Street opening hours. Currency will be dispensed at the exchange rate that applies on the day and will be commission free.



"This is a very exciting development for us as we believe that there is huge potential for ATMs dispensing foreign currency. The advent of the Euro consolidated a number of currencies, which opens a window of opportunity for more convenient ways of accessing foreign money. By provoviding ATMs at St Pancras International we can help travellers to avoid queuing in advance on the High Street and paying commission on Euros. In addition, travellers can get money before they go abroad, saving on commission charges from machine providers and their own banks of up to 10% on Euros withdrawn at ATMs overseas. Now there's a new way to get Euros which is quick, easy to use, convenient and good value.



This development marks another major success in our strategy for rolling out currency dispensing ATMs in the UK and abroad through developing our own sites and working with partners."