Market Harborough to Paris (CIV?)

[Realfish]

Hello. I'm planning a day trip for 2 to Paris from MHR to Paris in February. The most cost effective way would seem to be purchasing separate tickets from the EMT and Eurostar websites (First advances for the UK legs (Railcards)) for an early out and late home day trip (£207 for two)

The through ticket from Eurostar is an additional £59 for the two of us, offers some protection for delays (?), but on the return journey what seems an unreasonably long transfer time (on specified trains) of around an hour at STP

The BR Fares guide seems to offer a walk on CIV ticket which is slightly cheaper than the available Advance tickets. It gives complete flexibility but this only seems available for the outward journey to London International (?).

I've checked the new Loco 2 site which seems unfathomable and suggests an unlikely £405 for the trip. Raileasy which sells CIV tickets seems to be down.

My question is;

Do I actually need a CIV ticket, or the Eurostar through ticket, for the additional protection? When I travelled to Brussels from BHI last year, my Virgin service was delayed by well over an hour and I arrived at STP just 5 mins. before departure. Eurostar advised my travelling companion that I get my ticket endorsed by the Virgin TM in case I was further delayed, If I missed my booked Eurostar service, they'd put me on the next one.

And what is an accepted as a reasonable transfer time to / from Eurostar services at STP?

 

[Romilly]

You may want to look at this thread:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1655861

as it would seem to answer your questions. Personally, I have either booked a through-ticket on the Eurostar website from a UK regional station to Paris, or just booked the London-Paris Eurostar ticket on the website and then bought the connecting London Eurostar CIV tickets from Eurostar Domestic Sales. The latter often seems to be the cheaper option.

 

[Oscar]

The minimum connection times used by the Eurostar / Eurostar Domestic Sales booking system seems to be shown at www.brtimes.com under "Fixed Links" - it is the minimum connection time for London Eurostar (35 minutes), the minimum connection time for the other station plus the fixed link time if relevant. For the return journey the data used by Eurostar seems to be the fixed link time plus the minimum connection time for London St. Pancras (15 minutes). The minimum connection times the public are supposed to use are in the National Rail Timetable. Normally the National Rail Timetable and booking engine connection times are identical (the latter being made up of three parts as outlined above) between 0700 and 1900, with the booking engine times being longer in the evening but in the case of Eurostar connections the difference is greater as NRT states that passengers should use the normal connection times plus 35 minutes.

 

[button_boxer]

Which is all a bit of a joke in this case as when you come off a service from Paris it's just straight down the travelator and out - all the passport checks are done at the Paris end, I've made it from E* train to EMT gateline in as little as 5 minutes in the past (with judicious choice of E* seat to be at the end nearest the buffers).

Connecting to Eurostar is a different matter of course.

 

[Realfish]

You may want to look at this thread:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1655861

as it would seem to answer your questions. Personally, I have either booked a through-ticket on the Eurostar website from a UK regional station to Paris, or just booked the London-Paris Eurostar ticket on the website and then bought the connecting London Eurostar CIV tickets from Eurostar Domestic Sales. The latter often seems to be the cheaper option.

Thanks Romily, I did check for earlier threads but couldn't find one. I'll speak with E* Domestic Sales and book tomorrow (the £59 return 'Cheap as Frites' promotion ends tomorrow). CIV tickets seem to be something of a secret.

It would seem that the price difference for the through ticket is because E* doesn't apply GB railcard discounts to the domestic sector.

 

[Oscar]

In the case of connecting to/from services to/from King's Cross or St. Pancras, the minimum connection time Eurostar uses seems to be:

Travelling away from the UK:
15 minutes minimum connection time King's Cross/St. Pancras + fixed link 1 minute + 35 minutes Eurostar connection time

Travelling towards the UK:
15 minutes minimum connection time (same as St. Pancras) + fixed link 1 minute + 15 minutes minimum connection time King's Cross/St. Pancras

I agree that it's a bit of a joke.