After two years of hold ups, post-Brexit measures are officially coming into force at St Pancras this autumn. From October, any Eurostar traveller with a non-EU passport will have to turn up to the station earlier so that they have time to go through new boarding procedures. And when we say earlier, we mean a whole two hours before departure.
Work has started on installing 49 kiosks, which will be ready for use from October 6 2024. The EU describes the machines as ‘automated IT system for registering non-EU nationals travelling for a short stay each time they cross the external borders of European countries’. A similar system will also be in place for the Eurotunnel.
Passengers’ fingerprint scans and pictures will be stored for three years, so that individuals can be verified on future trips around the EU. The entry-exit system (EES) will replace the physical stamping of passports when you go through passport control. You’ll still need your passport though!
The kiosks will be located near the main entrance on the ground floor of St Pancras with an overflow area on the mezzanine level. The EES was originally due to launch way back in 2022, then again in May last year but ran into IT issues.
You’d hope that new technology would speed up the Eurostar boarding process, but there are worries that it could instead cause more delays. A House of Lords committee has warned the government that there will be ‘serious delays for passengers’ at St Pancras unless the EU postpones the rollout. Postponement would allow the UK to wait until a smartphone app, which is currently in development, helps to speed things up.
That’s everything we know so far. We’ll keep this page updated if anything changes.
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