Eurostar: Thirty years of challenges • FRANCE 24 English

45 comments

1. just give UK citizens Irish passports so they can travel as they did before and as a Scot Brexit was a stupid move. Scotland didn't vote to leave the EU!

2. One day eurostar will finally be forced to give up her monopoly, and capacity will finally increase. With the added benefit of them being unable to blackmail the netherlands anymore.

3. The EU and the UK would do good if they got rid of their monopoly

4. it disappointing that Eurostar not stopping in Ashford at the moment. if you want to go to Europe by train you have to go all the way to London first it is not eco-friendly or cost-effective to be going the extra miles. Lets hope that Eurostar keeps there promises and reopens Ashford international in 2026

5. I would like to take Eurostar instead of flight, but the train is 2-3 times more expensive than the plane. Please make it as cheap as Ryanair, Easyjet etc.

6. Thank you for this excellent reporting.

7. Not hat I was ever likely to use Eurostar being afraid of tunnels but increasing their prices when passenger numbers have increased seems pure greed to me. So I’ll go by ferry thanks.

8. Someone needs to break the monopoly of Eurostar, and sort out capacity at St Pancras – prices are ridiculous! Even bringing Stratford into use finally would be interesting

9. the tunnal is now reduntant for fright the nexet french rail strike will push back numbers and end the last fright leving eurostar meeting the full costs the cash poor british goverment will not reopen boarders in kent . and that would be a political vote loser , in five years the new goverment of reform will probley close the rail link? or bring in full antie imgrent antie terro contoles on all travilers so the is not a very good future for the next 30 years

10. Thatcher wanted it to be an underground express way for cars.

11. Eurostar always had border controls, the UK was never in Schengen.

12. Stopped using it since they stopped selling tickets for UK stations.
    You now have to buy a separate ticket to London which leaves you out of pocket if your connection is late.

13. 👏

14. One of the few projects that Ms. Thatcher conceived that was a roaring success. The Docklands Light Railway, London City Airport and Canary Wharf being the others… Otherwise, one of the worst British PM's of all time. What I'd like to see on the Eurostar is more Ouigo-like budget services so that all types of travelers can afford to use it!

15. The train has one more milestone to reach… Once the LGV Picardie line is built, London-Paris travel time will be under 2 hours.

16. The British government made foolish decisions building a terminal station at Waterloo International, a second terminal station at St Pancras and then not building a through station for London that connected HS2 to HS1. We could have had Eurostar services continuing through London to the UK's second city – Birmingham. And eventually, when the UK built more high speed rail, we could have had Eurostar trains running to Cardiff in Wales and Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland.

    An Irish Sea tunnel could also have eventually put Dublin and Belfast on the Eurostar network. That would be a long-term plan that would help both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. All four countries in the UK could be connected to Europe (and to each other) and the Republic of Ireland would also have connections to Europe. But none of this is possible without the cooperation of the UK government. And, unfortunately there are a number of bonkers politicians in the UK who are now so keen on spreading anti-European nonsense that we are going to need a big amount of railway campaigning on the UK side, to get the two closed Eurostar stations open and talk of Eurostar being more than a London-thing.

    In Europe itself, I also have to say it is very disappointing that Eurostar is running full trains with higher prices than air flights. We drastically need to move people away from aircraft and onto trains to reduce the damage being done by the climate emergency. The environment is far too important for things to be left under the control of a bunch of shareholders, who want to earn as much money as possible. The European Union Agency for Railways should own Eurostar and other railway services that cross multiple EU countries. The number of seats for international trains should be pushed up so that international flights between European countries can be banned.

    One good thing about Eurostar being controlled by Europe is that, if Eurostar services between Paris and London can increase capacity, the French government can then ban flights from airports near Paris to London and both Paris and London get cleaner air (with or without the cooperation of the UK government or the British Airports Authority). This is the long-term strategy that the EU needs to push for.

    But international train ticket prices need to drop in order to drain the airports of customers. The EU can do this by charging climate change tax to air passengers and using that tax to subsidise international railways.

17. Remember seeing this being built and exchanging flags on the TV 📺 in the 90s. It kept marvelling me over these decades. Today I am 43.

18. Did i just watch an advert?

19. Haven't used Eurostar since they removed the stops in Kent. Going into London with 2 young kids is simply too much hassle so we now just drive all the way to Disney… Cheaper yes but no where near as relaxing for me. If they bring back one of the Kent stations I would use again in a heartbeat!

20. Slow, dirty, expensive, inefficient,overpriced…shall I go on?

21. lol, every European person I talk to, that is dependent on Eurostar connections, hates the company so much.

22. I hope that there could be a potential train berlin to London

23. They need to fix Thalys, which Eurostar also operates. Horrible trains, horrible staff.

24. Shame the newer rolling stock is so uncomfortable compared to the original.

25. reopen ashford !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

26. If they lower the prices and have better customer service they might do better.

27. With current ticket prices it has lost most of its competitiveness and the London terminus waiting area is an utter joke.

28. If I remember correctly, the true Eurostar train sets (373 and 374) are only equipped to run on 25,000 V 50 Hz AC, 3,000 V DC and 1,500 V DC overhead power. That's the most common overhead power in the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Since there are no plans for these sets to go into Germany, they don't need support for 15,000 V 16.667 Hz AC overhead power.

29. I traveled all the way from Australia to ride on the Eurostar.

30. It’s way too expensive unfortunately taking Eurostar from Cologne to London, costing 200€ only one way whereas the flight costs 60€ including luggage 😢

31. I really wish they would link HS2 to to the Eurostar network so you can go from Birmingham to Paris. Makes no sense that HS2 and HS1 are not linked!

32. Eurostar prices are definitely too high, they milk everyone.

33. I rode the Eurostar twice. I loved it 🥰

34. I rode the Eurostar twice. I loved it 🥰

35. Eurostar is a fantastic service, it is the only way I travel to Paris and it is the way I recommend anyone going to Paris tavels.
    I wonder if they'll run sleeper trains to further south in France in the future

36. Construct 45000Km of Bullet Train Tracks by 2045.

37. Extending the Eurostar network to more of Urop only makes sense, but the prices are a real problem. This is true for much of rail travel, bar Germany's fantastic move to offer countrywide tickets – only on slow trains, though. We'll end up with a class divide where poor people use polluting planes.

38. The Eurostar has simplified a once 7 hour journey between London to Paris journey via the Seacat hydrofoil from Folkestone to Boulogne to 2 hours even beating the City centre connection via the Heathrow shuttle to Paris CDG.
    The fares unfortunately don't which really need to be worked on.

39. Definitely on my bucket list for train trips I'd like to experience.

40. Went to Brussels and back for lunch from London once, to see if we could do it. We did. Brilliant.

41. Eurostar no longer stops in Kent at Ebbsfleet or Ashord since covid and it appears this is now permanent. For me this adds at least an hour to any Eurostar journey.

42. Eurostar is the "router" of Europe's rail network. Eurostar is the typical story of "if you buld it, they will come," something from which my own country (United States) can learn.

    It is amazing how many cities I've been able to visit whenever I fly to Europe. I really wish we had something like that here in the U.S.

    However, I do agree the prices are too high. I couldn't justify paying to use this service every day or even every week.

43. Maggie speaking French! 😮

44. surely consulting tory Mps about expensive tunnels and then scrapping the project at the behest of NIMBYS was the ideal solution

45. Eurostar's prices are Extorsion! Imagine one day having Flixtrain, Ouigo, and my favorites: Iryo and OBB Railjet to Saint Pancras thru the Chunnel!

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