EUROSTAR – A GLIMMER OF LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL ?

Last October, we posted an item highlighting how Eurostar has been effectively strangled since the start in 1994 from reaching it’s full potential. We then sent letters to various media outlets based on this item – in case you missed it see the monthly news item on 12th October 2022 at https://www.eurorailcampaignuk.org/monthly-news/ .

Although it was not picked up by the National Media it was published in full in the December issues of Modern Railways, Todays Railways-Europe and Railwatch. Later on, in early February another fortnightly publication called Rail covered the topic in 3 separate articles in the same edition, including one by Christian Woolmar in his regular column. These articles all explained how and why Eurostar could not charge lower fares, nor run any extra services and could not even run a full train due to the extra time needed for post-brexit border controls.

After effectively ignoring the problem the UK Government might now finally be responding, as Mark Harper the UK Transport Secretary recently had a meeting in Paris with the French Transport Minister and the Chief Executive of Eurostar. It was reported that they discussed the need to “address border-related challenges, prevent lengthy queues at the terminals “ and “to support and secure the future growth and success of the international rail sector”. It was also reported that he reaffirmed the UK Government’s commitment to working with the French Government to ensuring any border control systems work for both countries and international passengers.

Let’s hope that his words can be translated into action – in the meantime we shall be campaigning for better onward connections with Eurostar at Brussels.

And finally, you can now take your bike again on Eurostar, though it is not that cheap and the arrangements are a bit complicated. Further information at:- https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/eurostar-re-opens-cycle-carriage-service#msdynttrid=zff9ZljBGw394dc05XiRNXSSpqgRbbpMki6kTkgCn_g