Recent content by paolo

From a tourist/my perspective, Centraal looks closer to the tourist attractions than Zuid. On the inaugural Eurostar arrival, I wheeled my bag to a canal side hotel, and spent the rest of the time exploring on foot. In my mind I’d arrived in the middle... no metros, trams or buses needed. I can...

I note not having “compulsory seat reservations” has been posted as an advantage. Looking at it another way, aren’t these “no standing” services? Is that bad? For example, would the Eurostar be improved if it removed compulsory seat allocation? If it gets busy, people sitting on the floor in...

Yep. I did Venice to Milan for £50. For a 2.5 hour journey on a fast modern train... massively cheaper than the UK. If I had one criticism... the seats are so spacious, with armrests etc, one’s window seat is actually a short distance from the window. I reckon the 1st class seats were slightly...

Did three Berlin trips last year. First two were city breaks, I flew. I guess it helped that both were Tegel, a crazily easy airport, 15 minutes in a cab to our city accommodation. Third was the first leg on a full rail tour. That was 11 hours London to Berlin, and was a bit - argh - towards...

Nicely done. NL and UK flags being given out at St P. Loads of people took the pair. Tulips (and flags again) for the Business Lounge. On board... “Welcome to this historic first journey...” (I hope someone has a recording) New Eurostar CEO Mike Cooper went through the train greeting...

I’ll be in Standard Prem. Hopefully will say hello - what’s your YouTube channel? (Edit... found it)

Just to reiterate, the waiting area was empty yesterday evening. Maybe 20 or 30 people max. Everyone else was out on the balcony waiting for border control. As soon as people got through, they were heading for their train as they were now late. It took me an hour to clear through. St P...

A few years ago, passengers for Sunday night fully loaded trains could get into the terminal in about 10-15 minutes. Now it’s heading towards an hour. Trains are being delayed because passengers can’t get in, in time. The terminal itself is empty. Everyone is on the balcony. UK Border Control...

A quick google brings out this. Which, in context, presents things in a very different light. Look at the SPAD numbers for manual operation vs ATO. (And that's even before the point that, if we're talking about the future of rapid transit at least, I'd argue that it's CBTC that should be the...

CBTC can stay closer in moving block, align perfectly with platform edge doors faster and more accurately, and run much closer to track speed limits (humans err towards a larger safe margin). But computers still can’t beat humans for overall operational safety - determining when to close doors...

I noticed this when I was booking back on the 22nd. All the returns on the ‘official’ Eurostar route were hugely expensive, vs the outbound London>Amsterdam which were all at £35. (I ended up choosing the super slow option (not even Thalys). I’ll stop en route for a few hours and explore, make...

Aha, nice tip, just done the same now.

Just bought a ticket for the very first London>Amsterdam train, using www.nsinternational.nl (Eurostar, on the other hand, not showing their *own* direct trains. Wtf?)

So @33Hz it sounds like - hypothetically - as an interim there could be pre clearance. Some juggling at Brussels still, to keep the fully cleared passengers segregated from partially cleared. The answer above suggests Brussels could have done this. What happened at Midi? Was it seen as a fault...

Ah ok, so there's at least the logistical potential for Brussels>London ES passengers to board without UK border control on departure. Do the Brussels-Lille passengers board with security screening? Or is it hop-on like Thalys/TGV/etc (we need a collective Schengen area HST term :) )