by Jo Sword

Commuters will get a chance to try out the UK's first high speed rail service from June 29 - five months ahead of its official launch on December 13.

The 'preview' service will run between Ashford International, Ebbsfeet International and St Pancras from Monday to Friday.

As well as giving passengers a taste of what is to come and offering rail bosses feedback, it will also give Southeastern a chance to continue with testing, training and ensuring the service will run smoothly when it is fully introduced.

Southeastern says the highly anticipated 140mph service will offer passengers between Ashford International and London a journey time of 37 minutes and from Ebbsfleet International a time of just 17 minutes.

Charles Horton, Southeastern managing director said: "This is an extremely exciting time for the whole rail industry and we are pleased that we are able to provide this preview service six months early."

But there is a price to pay for this speedy service which the rail operator believes offers value for money.

For example, with a single ticket it will cost you £26.60 to get to London from Ashford International on High Speed 1 compared with £22.20 if you use the mainline.

Existing Southeastern ticket holders will be able to travel by paying a supplement and all first class ticket holders can travel on the high speed line at no extra cost.

Commuters from Ebbsfleet International will get more choice of when they can travel compared to Ashford’s commuters using this 'preview' service. Southeastern are offering up to four morning peak services to St Pancras International and six back during the evening peak hours. There will also be twice-hourly services operating during the day.

But if you want to try out High Speed 1 from further afield, the company is only offering up peak time travel six times a day to and from Ashford International.

Earlier this year Southeastern published its draft High Speed 1 timetable, which will see an extra 200 trains operating daily from December.