Change to Eurostar timings

I was informed today by Eurostar that my train from Lille to London on Sunday has been retimed from a 21.57 arrival to a 22.27 arrival.

I was, perhaps optimistically, expecting to catch the 22.20 from St Pancras to East Croydon to connect with the last train to Lewes, which I will now miss.

I guess I can’t do anything about this as I wasn’t using minimum connection times? Adding 30 mins to a journey 3 days away seems a bit off though, plus the email with the new time was incorrect, stating the ‘new’ arrival time as the old time. I only saw the new time by checking the app. Eurostar excels again…

There's an extended closure on the Belgian High Speed line to Brussels in August though that's not supposed to start until the 6th. It does seem like an additional closure has been put in for this Sunday night which is diverting your service via the classic lines.

I suspect you won't be entitled to anything from Eurostar despite the late notice. Even for delays on the day they won't pay out for anything below an hours delay. Worth putting in a complaint about their poor comms though.

Your best bet is to hop on Thameslink to Brighton and get the 28 bus to Lewes.

Thanks, yes happily Brighton isn’t so far. I also note on their comms they said the departure time won’t be affected but I see in fact it has!

I then realised as the prior train had also been put back 30 mins I could now get that - so I asked at St Pancras if I could change to that train. I was stunned to be told I’d be charged £50 to do so!

Perhaps you could phone Eurostar, explain your situation once more and see if they would be willing to rebook you onto the earlier train? Sometimes it's just a matter of who you talk to at the time and it might be worth a shot.

ricohallo said:

Perhaps you could phone Eurostar, explain your situation once more and see if they would be willing to rebook you onto the earlier train? Sometimes it's just a matter of who you talk to at the time and it might be worth a shot.

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Better still, arrive in good time and talk to staff at check-in?

30907 said:

Better still, arrive in good time and talk to staff at check-in?

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Thus is what was later recommended to me by Eurostar but my connection from Lille Flandres is fairly tight. In the end I spoke to the booking office in Lille who were only too happy to transfer me to the earlier train for free. I was just quite outside that London tried to charge me when I was only requesting this because THEY had changed the train time at short notice!