Eurostar St Pancras - is bedlam normal?

[Chester1]

It has gotten better over the last 2 years, in my experience. of course, EES and ETIAS starting may make it worse again, even if only temporarily

It will definitely make things worse temporarily but it should get things approximately back to where they were before brexit. Once the new system has bedded in British people will only need fingerprinting if they have never used EES or they haven't entered Schengen in previous three years or have a new passport. This hassle should be offset by quicker processing of third country nationals that don't require visas e.g. American, Canadian and Japanese tourists.

UK Electronic Travel Authorisation roll out has four stages:

1) Qataris were the launch nationality in November 2023
2) Other GCC nationals + Jordanians joined them February 2024
3) every non european who doesn’t require a visa (unspecified date late this year)
4) EU/EEA citizens in spring 2025.

Eurostar in Paris, Brussels, Lille and Amsterdam should benefit from the staged approach of UK.

Leasing Benugo for space for extra EES enrollment kiosks is a smart move.

 

[infobleep]

Is this not reserved for Business Premier and higher-tier Club Eurostar members only?

Well if it's only for that class of passenger then I would rather queue and save the money.

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There were only ever French eGates at St Pancras

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Since Brexit has required the stamping of all UK passport holders, they were rather awkward, and not particularly helpful. They were replaced with more manned booths instead

But what about those who don't need their passport stamped? I guess we are to few in number.

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In theory, yes. But you may find differently.

How would one go about finding out differently?

 

[BahrainLad]

How would one go about finding out differently?

You could perhaps download the app from the App Store, follow the onboarding process and try to use it on your next Standard Premier or Standard journey from London. You may be pleasantly surprised although I couldn’t possibly comment.

 

[ainsworth74]

I've had issues with the e-gates breaking before as well, and they have to reboot all of the 'bank' of gates if one breaks. A human being is much more reliable!

I must admit I always found the e-gates at St Pancras to be utterly dreadful, were they an early generation of gate or something? My poor mother had her first interaction with an e-gate at St Pancras and almost ended up stuck as there was no staff around to help her out and it took me and a friendly German gentleman providing directions to get her through. Whilst she was the person struggling the most from observation on that trip and others she was far and away not the only one.

Meanwhile at airports like Gatwick or Heathrow I've never seen as much drama with the e-gates as you used to see at St Pancras. Hence my wondering if they were an early implementation!

 

[Peterthegreat]

I must admit I always found the e-gates at St Pancras to be utterly dreadful, were they an early generation of gate or something? My poor mother had her first interaction with an e-gate at St Pancras and almost ended up stuck as there was no staff around to help her out and it took me and a friendly German gentleman providing directions to get her through. Whilst she was the person struggling the most from observation on that trip and others she was far and away not the only one.

Meanwhile at airports like Gatwick or Heathrow I've never seen as much drama with the e-gates as you used to see at St Pancras. Hence my wondering if they were an early implementation!

The e-gates at St Pancras were "French" as for outward travel. As far as I am aware the e-gates are for inward travel.
Having said that I found the e-gates at Brussels were terrible too.

 

[D6130]

We travel on Eurostar at least twice a year and have never witnessed any 'bedlam'. Mind, coming from Yorkshire, we're always travelling on afternoon departures!

 

[Trainbike46]

We travel on Eurostar at least twice a year and have never witnessed any 'bedlam'. Mind, coming from Yorkshire, we're always travelling on afternoon departures!

I've had two bad departures; once during covid (2020), the last day France was letting people in from the UK before christmas (This was a coincidence, I had booked to travel months ahead of time), and once about a year later. From the start of covid till the first half of 2023 the queues were bad, but not disastrous. My last two trips (April 2024 and last Christmas), had minimal queueing - the measure they have taken really worked bring things back to how they were before.

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where with 'bad' I mean queues extending out of the station building, trains delayed because people couldn't get through security in time, etc.

 

[infobleep]

You could perhaps download the app from the App Store, follow the onboarding process and try to use it on your next Standard Premier or Standard journey from London. You may be pleasantly surprised although I couldn’t possibly comment.

Now found the app and I'll try and remember to test it out next time I travel on the Eurostar, which is unlikely to be this year.

Worth noting it gets 2.1 stars out of 5 on the Google Play store.

 

[BahrainLad]

It's not the world's best UX but it works. However I have only used the iOS version.

 

[Peterthegreat]

Slightly off-topic but I've just passed through Madrid Chamartin. Makes St Pancras look organised even on a bad day! Absolute mayhem.

 

[Thames99]

I'm going to give iproov a go as recommended above when I next travel and I've now got the app set up and the ticket scanned in.

Can anyone tell me what the procedure will be when I get to St Pancras please?

 

[BahrainLad]

I'm going to give iproov a go as recommended above when I next travel and I've now got the app set up and the ticket scanned in.

Can anyone tell me what the procedure will be when I get to St Pancras please?

Make sure you check in on the app. When you get to the station the iProov queue is to the right hand side next to the Business Premier queue ie very close to Midland Road. There’ll be nobody there apart from possibly a E* staff member to help you. You walk up to the camera, it scans, beeps, you walk through to security. Then you have French immigration. Then you’re in the departure lounge.

 

[Thames99]

Thanks BahrainLad, that's very helpful. So it works entirely with the facial recognition camera - I assumed that the app on my phone would also be needed at the gate.

 

[BahrainLad]

Yes the whole setup reminded me of the new facial boarding at JFK (T4 and I think T8 too) where you can board on an international flight by just looking at a screen, which is quite disconcerting the first time you do it…

 

[Thames99]

Yes the whole setup reminded me of the new facial boarding at JFK (T4 and I think T8 too) where you can board on an international flight by just looking at a screen, which is quite disconcerting the first time you do it…

Thanks again. I'll report back in a week or so as to how it went.

 

[Trothy]

Did the iproov thing last month on an early trip to Rotterdam. Was through in less than 5 minutes. Very very impressive

 

[williamn]

Slightly off-topic but I've just passed through Madrid Chamartin. Makes St Pancras look organised even on a bad day! Absolute mayhem.

also had a bad experience there recently!

 

[Taunton]

Maybe we should dust off the North of London Eurostar plans again. Not all passengers live around London. Many make long journeys from the north to get to St Pancras.
It's hardly a surprise that it can be a bit of a shambles, particularly at Holiday weekends and the Annual Holiday Months.

Probably not that many overall. Much Eurostar patronage is from Europeans, and overseas visitors such as USA/Asia. Much as some may not like it being pointed out, their travel origins in Britain are almost wholly London. Even of UK passengers, a high proportion are from London and the South-East; from Manchester or Scotland it's more effective to fly direct.

The perspective that everyone on Eurostar was British, and/or that visitors from overseas want to come to enjoy the attractions of Swindon or Scunthorpe, unfortunately penetrated the politician's input into the service, leading to ideas such as North-of-London, and the Sleepers, which ended up just being a huge waste of money. I suspect Eurostar would even like to give up Lille if they could (and if they weren't French owned now).

 

[signed]

I suspect Eurostar would even like to give up Lille if they could (and if they weren't French owned now).

I suspect that E* blue would gladly want to avoid the process of carrying passengers between Schengen stops, because that process is likely very costly (the Lille loophole closing), and leave those to either SNCF or E* red

 

[John R]

Yes the whole setup reminded me of the new facial boarding at JFK (T4 and I think T8 too) where you can board on an international flight by just looking at a screen, which is quite disconcerting the first time you do it…

Had that experience at Dallas Fort Worth recently and it is indeed very disconcerting, though not sure it saves any time. Now all we need is universal roll out of the new scanners in security, which should make a meaningful difference in terms of the overall departure experience.

 

[Trainbike46]

I suspect that E* blue would gladly want to avoid the process of carrying passengers between Schengen stops, because that process is likely very costly (the Lille loophole closing), and leave those to either SNCF or E* red

I'm pretty sure they have in fact stopped taking intra-schengen passengers on Eurostar blue...

 

[signed]

I'm pretty sure they have in fact stopped taking intra-schengen passengers on Eurostar blue...

That's what I'm seeing, can’t select Paris/Brussels-Lille on Eurostar website

 

[Krokodil]

Because adding a long dwell only 5 mins from the main terminus where the vast majority will be travelling to is enough of a deterrent to push people away to flying.

How long a dwell time exactly?

It will definitely make things worse temporarily but it should get things approximately back to where they were before brexit. Once the new system has bedded in British people will only need fingerprinting if they have never used EES or they haven't entered Schengen in previous three years or have a new passport.

The impression I originally got was that you would have to renew every three years, regardless of whether you'd travelled in the interim. Will it instead simply be that you register once and can keep coming and going until your passport expires?

The perspective that everyone on Eurostar was British, and/or that visitors from overseas want to come to enjoy the attractions of Swindon or Scunthorpe, unfortunately penetrated the politician's input into the service, leading to ideas such as North-of-London, and the Sleepers

You know full well that neither Swindon or Scunthorpe were ever going to be served by either Regional Eurostar or Nightstar (though the former was proposed to have far too many stops anyway).

 

[Peterthegreat]

How long a dwell time exactly?


The impression I originally got was that you would have to renew every three years, regardless of whether you'd travelled in the interim. Will it instead simply be that you register once and can keep coming and going until your passport expires?


You know full well that neither Swindon or Scunthorpe were ever going to be served by either Regional Eurostar or Nightstar (though the former was proposed to have far too many stops anyway).

Swindon was a proposed stop on the Nightstar service from Swansea.

 

[Chester1]

The impression I originally got was that you would have to renew every three years, regardless of whether you'd travelled in the interim. Will it instead simply be that you register once and can keep coming and going until your passport expires?

ETIAS the pre authorisation system launching next year will last for three years and then expire. Its basically just an online form that is used for a security check. EES launches in October and is the fingerprinting and photo system that replaces stamps in passports. The record of fingerprints will remain on system until its not used for three years. Every new passport will require enrollement of fingerprints to connect them to the new passport. If you keep visiting regularly then your fingerprints will stay on system indefinitely but if you don't have ETIAS pre authorisation you won't be allowed to enter Schengen. The UK has chosen to have both functions in one system (UK ETA), which is what Canada, Australia and US have done.

 

[Krokodil]

Swindon was a proposed stop on the Nightstar service from Swansea.

Mea culpa. Anyway these days Swindon is a booked stop for pretty much all trains. The days of many trains running fast through the station are long gone. The passenger usage figures bear no comparison with Scunthorpe.

 

[ThameslinkUser]

How long a dwell time exactly?

Let's go with Brussels. 15-20 mins booked for Amsterdam - London Eurostars. That dwell is longer than the journey time to St Pancras. People can travel to/from St Pancras.

 

[Krokodil]

Let's go with Brussels. 15-20 mins booked for Amsterdam - London Eurostars. That dwell is longer than the journey time to St Pancras. People can travel to/from St Pancras.

Why do we have to go with Brussels? Why not use Rotterdam as an example? Four minutes.

 

[ThameslinkUser]

Four minutes.

4/5 of the journey time still

 

[Trainbike46]

Let's go with Brussels. 15-20 mins booked for Amsterdam - London Eurostars. That dwell is longer than the journey time to St Pancras. People can travel to/from St Pancras.

I'm pretty sure a significant part of the dwell in Brussels is for pathing reasons anyway, and that wouldn't be required at Stratford