Eurostar Queries

[rmt4ever]

I have taken the Euro* many times since the days of travelling from Waterloo. Have seen the service in the 'middle' class get severely reduced, from the days of being able to use the lounge, getting champagne, hot food, lots of drinks, to the present situation of a crappy little snack and one or two small wines as we get now....

Nevertheless that aside, on yesterdays heavily delayed journey I got chatting to crew who were London based but all French. It got me thinking, on every Eurostar I have ever travelled I have NEVER heard English sounding crew....
obviously there are English based crew, but are they all French? Why are there no English on-train Eurostar crew?

Also when moving from my carriage 10 down the train, I noticed a private cabin with about 5 seats in and a table. It was middle-class standard seating. It was occupied by a few people. What are these private cabins and how does one book them? (and how much do they cost)

We were at a stand in Calais station for 80 minutes due to awaiting tunnel clearance. No problem really, but someone got frustrated for a cigarette and opened a train door and stepped onto the platform to have one. They got bollocked by the guard. I could understand this obviously if the train was at a stand in the middle of nowhere, but at a international station protected by customs/security what would have been the problem in opening a couple of local doors (in a controlled manor) to let people get some air or have a fag? Especially knowing the train would be there stood for over an hour! Its a huge amount of time.

 

[Searle]

Some interesting questions, ones which I had never actually thought of myself, but now make me ponder :P

Firstly, I don't want to generalise, but I'd hazard a guess at that many French people speak fluent English, but not as near as many English people can speak fluent English. Maybe the management find it much easier to advertise jobs in France than over here, because of that reason.

Never ever heard or seen anything about a secret compartment! Maybe a place for (off duty) staff to sit whilst they travel to/from London/Paris/Brussels?

Lastly, about the Calais Cigarette incident, I'd assume they don't like people doing that for a couple of reasons. Firstly, with security around the Eurostar so high (especially with people seemingly freaking out over immigrants over here), it would be a bit silly to open all the doors and give people a chance of jumping on board and hiding before they can be stopped. I don't know the layout of Calais Frethun, so I can't comment in detail, but that's what I'd hazard a guess out. Secondly, I presume that the guard and/or driver have no idea how long they're going to be waiting, and when they get the all clear to move, it could potentially take a long time to get everyone back on board, before being allowed to, and they don't want to waste any time at all, especially with the situation at the moment. Similarly, there may be no staff on the platform (as a pose to in the stations where there are many staff watching the train as the doors close), so re-closing the doors with no supervision could be extremely unsafe.

That's just my two cents, hope that it helps

 

[transmanche]

Firstly, I don't want to generalise, but I'd hazard a guess at that many French people speak fluent English, but not as near as many English people can speak fluent English. Maybe the management find it much easier to advertise jobs in France than over here, because of that reason.

No need to advertise in France, there is a very large community of French people living in London.

In fact French is the most common second language in Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and the City of London. It's even been claimed that London is 'France's sixth biggest city'.

Source

 

[davetheguard]

Weren't the Eurostars originally fitted out with some compartments, complete with handcuffed seats, at the insistence of the UK Border Agency ( or whatever it was called at the time).

Of course, when the the service first started running, passports were checked on the train; so perhaps they needed some where to "hold" those without valid I.D.

Perhaps these are the comapartments to which you refer?

 

[rmt4ever]

Weren't the Eurostars originally fitted out with some compartments, complete with handcuffed seats, at the insistence of the UK Border Agency ( or whatever it was called at the time).

Of course, when the the service first started running, passports were checked on the train; so perhaps they needed some where to "hold" those without valid I.D.

Perhaps these are the comapartments to which you refer?

They seemed to be middle class 'older' people using it. Sipping wine and chatting away..

Hardly those I would expect to be off duty staff, or having gotten nicked !

The compartment was in the premium carriage.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Secondly, I presume that the guard and/or driver have no idea how long they're going to be waiting, and when they get the all clear to move, it could potentially take a long time to get everyone back on board,

Well they already told us as soon as we stopped, it would be at LEAST another hour. This was due to waiting the next train from Brussels and the one after ours from Paris (one hour later) to arrive in order for us all to go through the tunnel together (one after another). And if they just did a couple of local doors it would have easily been controlled.

 

[furgus2]

I remember in the early days of Eurostar, there was certainly a mixture of nationalities forming the onboard catering crew but as time went on, the number of those of British background rapidly declined. In fact, for many years, I only came across one British member of catering crew. The last time I saw her was in 2006.

I can well understand the annoyance of the Train Manager at the person who opened the door who might have caused a situation like this: I was once on a busy northbound train from Paris that was judged not in a fit state to enter the tunnel. So, the train terminated at Calais and we were told that the train behind us would stop there too and we would board that. After a time, the doors were opened and we were told to move to the platform. Apparently, that was done without the approval of the French authorities who then decided that all passengers and luggage had to go through security screening again. This led to a further delay while waiting for the appropriate staff to travel to the station to undertake the screening and then the processing took some time as there was only one scanning machine available to use. I recall that arrival at Waterloo was nearly 2 hours later than it should have been and, although not connected to to what had happened in Calais, was one of those occasions when British Customs were doing a full screening of arriving passengers so causing even more delay.

 

[flash]

I have taken the Euro* many times since the days of travelling from Waterloo. Have seen the service in the 'middle' class get severely reduced, from the days of being able to use the lounge, getting champagne, hot food, lots of drinks, to the present situation of a crappy little snack and one or two small wines as we get now....

Nevertheless that aside, on yesterdays heavily delayed journey I got chatting to crew who were London based but all French. It got me thinking, on every Eurostar I have ever travelled I have NEVER heard English sounding crew....
obviously there are English based crew, but are they all French? Why are there no English on-train Eurostar crew?

Also when moving from my carriage 10 down the train, I noticed a private cabin with about 5 seats in and a table. It was middle-class standard seating. It was occupied by a few people. What are these private cabins and how does one book them? (and how much do they cost)

We were at a stand in Calais station for 80 minutes due to awaiting tunnel clearance. No problem really, but someone got frustrated for a cigarette and opened a train door and stepped onto the platform to have one. They got bollocked by the guard. I could understand this obviously if the train was at a stand in the middle of nowhere, but at a international station protected by customs/security what would have been the problem in opening a couple of local doors (in a controlled manor) to let people get some air or have a fag? Especially knowing the train would be there stood for over an hour! Its a huge amount of time.

The offices are the border / police authorities offices, now able to be used by those passengers who hold a Eurostar Carte Blanche Elite card - in theory they are free, it's just you have to be invited to join this loyalty program because you travel in premium on a weekly basis.....

Staffing wise, the language requirements are high, so generally that counts English people out!

As regards smoking, as in the UK smoking is forbidden on French stations - it's just that the French chose to ignore the regulations that they don't agree with.

 

[johnnychips]

And of course on the Brussels trains you have to announce things in Dutch, French and English. I would guess 66% of announcers are Dutch first-language speakers, 33% French, and in nearly 20 years travelling this route, I have heard a native English speaker once!

 

[edwin_m]

Presumably the smoker at Calais would have had to operate an emergency handle, as the doors wouldn't have been released. So the conductor would have had to reset it before the train could continue. Especially if a few other people at different doors got the same idea.

 

[rmt4ever]

Learning a lot about Euro* particularly the private booths

Interesting that those paying the still quite expensive (if paying full fare which thankfully I never have had to) Middle class option have had services/on board hospitality reduced drastically over the years, yet the elite have had service enhanced as to include their own private cabin at their disposal !!

Yes it seems the "no smoking on platforms" rules are ignored totally in France. Indeed it seems totally acceptable to after check in and upon boarding go to the platform and have a fag before getting on board. Indeed in most of Europe smoking regulations seem much less strict than England/UK.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I still think it's very strange I have never come across an English/British member of Euro* train crew! Pretty shocking, in fact ....

 

[edwin_m]

I'd hazard a guess at that many French people speak fluent English, but not as near as many English people can speak fluent English.

I guess this is probably a typo, but there's a ring of truth about it...

 

[flash]

Learning a lot about Euro* particularly the private booths

Interesting that those paying the still quite expensive (if paying full fare which thankfully I never have had to) Middle class option have had services/on board hospitality reduced drastically over the years, yet the elite have had service enhanced as to include their own private cabin at their disposal !!

Like everything in this world the ones who spend lots get rewarded - after all their custom is where the profits are!

 

[flash]

I still think it's very strange I have never come across an English/British member of Euro* train crew! Pretty shocking, in fact ....

You may well be travelling on trains crewed from France / Belguim... then factor in the fact the UK crew base employs less than a third of the 'on board' staff, and then the traditional English persons attitude to a foriegn language.....

 

[Tetchytyke]

I'd hazard a guess at that many French people speak fluent English, but not as near as many English people can speak fluent English.

Speak for yourself

Joking aside, I wouldn't have thought language requirements would help 'English' people get jobs with Eurostar, but it shouldn't be that much of a barrier. It could be more to do with just how multicultural London really is these days, even on my local TOC half the guards seem to be Eastern European (judging on their accent) these days. The London crews are likely to be from pretty much anywhere in the world, so you're not going to hear much Cockney.

 

[Searle]

I guess this is probably a typo, but there's a ring of truth about it...

Yes it was a typo, and let's not get into an immigrants debate

 

[Broken Viking]

Hmm...Thinking on the language issue for a moment: Now my French is particularly "MR2" (Think about that for a moment! ) but I wouldn't rate my German as being all that bad...And of course many of ye know just how much I love any form of high-speed rail!

I appreciate there is bob-all chance of my getting work on the current Three Capitals services because of the above, but does anyone reckon Eurostar might be interested in those with a good mix of English and German for the direct Koeln services when the 374s finally come into service? :grin:
>> Death <<

 

[edwin_m]

Hmm...Thinking on the language issue for a moment: Now my French is particularly "MR2" (Think about that for a moment! ) but I wouldn't rate my German as being all that bad...And of course many of ye know just how much I love any form of high-speed rail!

I appreciate there is bob-all chance of my getting work on the current Three Capitals services because of the above, but does anyone reckon Eurostar might be interested in those with a good mix of English and German for the direct Koeln services when the 374s finally come into service? :grin:
>> Death <<

I think they'd still need French, partly because they would want staff to work flexibly. Also I'd guess any staff member with safety-critical duties would need to be able to communicate with signallers and emergency services in the countries the train passes through, which would include parts of France and Belgium even if the train ends up in Germany.

 

[radamfi]

http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/about-eurostar/eurostar-careers/working-with-us/on-board says

All our train managers need to be at least bilingual in English and French and some speak Dutch, either as native Dutch speakers or by taking an intensive course.