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] On 20 June 1993, the first Eurostar test train travelled through the tunnel to the UK.[2] Various technical difficulties in running the new trains on British tracks were quickly overcome.[3]