Eurostar and Antwerp

[tivoli]

Just travelled London to Amstetdam on Eurostar. I should have realised that it would go through or rather under Antwerp Centraal, I wonder were there ever any plans for it to stop there?

 

[Austriantrain]

Just travelled London to Amstetdam on Eurostar. I should have realised that it would go through or rather under Antwerp Centraal, I wonder were there ever any plans for it to stop there?

Since E* would need to pay for border and security control installations and staff, probably not. Dropping passengers off towards Amsterdam would be doable, but on the return they would have to go to Brussels to board there.

 

[StephenHunter]

Although technically speaking, with the Thalys merger, Eurostar will start calling there...

 

[tasky]

It does feel incongruous passing such a grand station and not stopping. I suppose it might be appealing to business travellers not to have to change.

However, Antwerp is currently a very easy connection from Brussels – the frequency is at least every 15 minutes (higher in the peak) and the journey takes around 45 minutes.

Given there is no high-speed line between Brussels and Antwerp the Eurostars travel at more or less the same speed as the SNCB IC trains. The change at Midi is also physically very easy, with Antwerp-bound services departing from platforms 18, 19 and 20.

Eurostar also sells an "Any Belgian Station" ticket for more or less the same price as a Brussels fare so there isn't really an extra cost.

 

[tivoli]

Thanks for interesting responses, I suppose I was really thinking if there were plans to stop there before the service was established.

 

[Trainbike46]

Thanks for interesting responses, I suppose I was really thinking if there were plans to stop there before the service was established.

If I recall correctly there were, but a combination of issues with creating a separated platform and finding space for the necessary checks, as well as the costs involved killed it, as I understand it

 

[FormerBritInMe]

I know this is straying a bit off topic, but what would keep Britain from becoming part of Schengen and thereby eliminating all this border check nonsense? After all other non EU countries e.g. Switzerland are in Schengen.

 

[Trainbike46]

I know this is straying a bit off topic, but what would keep Britain from becoming part of Schengen and thereby eliminating all this border check nonsense? After all other non EU countries e.g. Switzerland are in Schengen.

The main thing preventing that would be the British government

 

[gordonthemoron]

The UK go

I know this is straying a bit off topic, but what would keep Britain from becoming part of Schengen and thereby eliminating all this border check nonsense? After all other non EU countries e.g. Switzerland are in Schengen.

The UK government

 

[Watershed]

I know this is straying a bit off topic, but what would keep Britain from becoming part of Schengen and thereby eliminating all this border check nonsense? After all other non EU countries e.g. Switzerland are in Schengen.

How about the fact that politicians insist on pandering to the minority (who make up a large percentage of swing voters) who think that the UK has something to gain by being as different as possible from the EU?

 

[tasky]

It's interesting to consider - had we joined Schengen when everyone else did, and people got used to border-free travel, would they actually want it reintroduced? Put 'bring back queueing at Luton airport' on the side of a bus...

 

[joncombe]

Put 'bring back queueing at Luton airport' on the side of a bus...

Queuing at Luton Airport never went away!

 

[StephenHunter]

It's interesting to consider - had we joined Schengen when everyone else did, and people got used to border-free travel, would they actually want it reintroduced? Put 'bring back queueing at Luton airport' on the side of a bus...

Quite a few countries used to have "border free travel" when under someone else's rule, but chose to give that up for independence. But Brexit was a bit different.

 

[tasky]

Queuing at Luton Airport never went away!

Yes because the UK was never a member of the Schengen area

 

[betraveler]

Even with Schengen there is customs facilitiy in London Saint Pancras so could have a separate car and just check that one on arrival instad. Like with Lille.

 

[StephenHunter]

Even with Schengen there is customs facilitiy in London Saint Pancras so could have a separate car and just check that one on arrival instad. Like with Lille.

Can't really lock off individual Eurostar carriages like that. You can do a mid-train separation - the two halves are identical, but not one carriage.

 

[philg999]

Can't really lock off individual Eurostar carriages like that. You can do a mid-train separation - the two halves are identical, but not one carriage.

During the covid restrictions in 2021, passengers to/from NL were kept separate from passengers to/from BE, and passengers to/from FR, using locked-off train halves.

 

[zwk500]

Can't really lock off individual Eurostar carriages like that. You can do a mid-train separation - the two halves are identical, but not one carriage.

Pretty sure trains from Brussels calling at Lille had (not sure if they still have) a carriage secured off for intra-schengen passengers

 

[RT4038]

Even with Schengen there is customs facilitiy in London Saint Pancras so could have a separate car and just check that one on arrival instad. Like with Lille.

And how would that prevent passengers with incorrect or no valid travel documents from arriving on UK soil?

 

[Cloud Strife]

Even with Schengen there is customs facilitiy in London Saint Pancras so could have a separate car and just check that one on arrival instad. Like with Lille.

There is, but St Pancras isn't big enough to carry out proper checks. It wasn't designed for incoming passport checks, only customs controls if required.

 

[AlexNL]

Regardless of Schengen, you'd still have to do the channel tunnel baggage security checks somewhere along the route.