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One of the benefits of taking the Eurostar over a plane, besides the fact that it’s more environmentally-friendly and takes you right into a city centre, is that you don’t have to go through as much faff as at an airport. But in recent years, there’s been more and more overcrowding at London’s St Pancras International, and its waiting room can be so cramped you wish you’d booked a flight instead.
This week, bosses admitted that the process at St Pancras has ‘become too close to the airport experience’ – and they want to change that. At the moment, Eurostar passengers are advised to arrive at St Pancras somewhere between 45 to 75 minutes before their train’s due to depart and are then left to wait in a departure lounge that is often overcrowded.
Wendy Spinks, the chief commercial officer at London St Pancras Highspeed, told the Telegraph that there is a plan to allow passengers to board Eurostar trains straight after going through security, rather than having to wait in the departures hall – more like a domestic train station. It’s been suggested that boarding times could be slashed by 30 minutes.
According to the paper, the changes to Eurostar wait times could be brought in alongside the £100m renovation of St Pancras. It’s hoped that the move will let travellers arrive to the station much closer to their departure time, spreading out the crowds and easing pressure on the station ahead of the potential arrival of the new Virgin and Trenitalia cross-Channel services towards the end of the decade. The cut would also help the station manage its planned boost in capacity – it’s aiming to increase passenger numbers from 2,000 per hour, to nearly 5,000 per hour by the end of 2028.
Overcrowding in St Pancras’ Eurostar departure lounge was made worse by the expansion of border controls and the installation of more kiosks to accommodate the EU’s entry and exit system. New rules meant that the lounge had to downsize, often leaving passengers without enough seats.
Spinks said: ‘Over time, security and border processing has taken up more and more space so that when you get through security, there’s nothing there. There is a mismatch between what the route can handle and what the station can handle.’
Don’t get too excited yet, the proposals haven’t been officially confirmed. For now, keep leaving yourself plenty of time at St Pancras before your jaunt to Paris, Lille, Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Brussels.
Did you see that this controversial £1.2 billion makeover of London’s busiest train station has been officially approved?
Plus: TfL just got a step closer to replacing London’s oldest tube trains.
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