Eurostar St Pancras - is bedlam normal?

[Trainbike46]

The timetable fortunately doesn't require this as the two trains are booked 1/2 hour apart.

Except it does have trains leaving 3 minutes apart, though not very frequently currently.
Next Wednesday for example, there are departures at:
06.01 Paris
06.16 Amsterdam
07.01 Paris
07.04 Brussels
07.31 Paris
08.01 Paris
09.01 Brussels
09.31 Paris
10.31 Paris
11.04 Amsterdam
11.31 Paris
12.01 Paris
12.31 Paris
13.01 Brussels
13.31 Paris
14.01 Paris
14.31 Paris
15.04 Brussels
15.31 Paris
16.01 Paris
16.31 Paris
17.04 Brussels
17.31 Paris
18.01 Paris
18.04 Amsterdam
19.01 Paris
19.34 Brussels
20.01 Paris

There are two instances of a Brussels/Amsterdam and a Paris service departing 3 minutes apart (07.01/07.04, and 18.01/18.04), and an extra one of a Paris and an Amsterdam service departing 15 minutes apart (06.01/06.16). This number will likely increase further with extra Amsterdam trains from September and again from December.

 

[Failed Unit]

Sorry, missed that one. Were these the ones that ES restricted sales on to ensure punctual departure? Bet they have a full complement in Premier too....

It is hard to tell, my understanding was the restricted sales on everything a while back. Hence when they swapped 373 / 374 around people didn’t notice. As a sure premier is normally 2 coaches. Standard premier 4 coaches (every seat sold). Standard is difficult to say as I would only walk down half the train to the buffet.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Is it? I have done that frequently travelling from Stockholm to various EU destinations. Biarritz is possibly the best where I can be literally on the street easily within 5 minutes of the aircraft doors opening.

I think most people on this forum are thinking of UK to Europe trips, where the experience is slowed by passport control and often baggage reclaim etc.

 

[Trainbike46]

Sorry, missed that one. Were these the ones that ES restricted sales on to ensure punctual departure? Bet they have a full complement in Premier too....

Eurostar was capping numbers below capacity on (almost) all services before. However, now that border capacity at St Pancras has increased that is no longer the case (and hasn't been for a while now) for services leaving St Pancras.

Other stations, like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Lille, and possibly Brussels still have passenger limits on passenger numbers per train that are lower than train capacity, and they've always had those.