Eurostar trains are forced to cross the channel with hundreds of empty seats every day during peak hours, as the border police cannot process the passports quickly enough. On average, trains run with 30 percent fewer passengers.
Thanks to the COVID pandemic, European borders were closed, as a result of which many personnel of international carriers have left the sector for more reliable jobs. Now that the travel restrictions have expired, transport companies want to scale back to their old level, but they are facing a serious staff shortage. Passport checks due to Brexit also cause considerable delays at stations.
Gwendoline Cazenave of Eurostar, told that “bottlenecks” in stations, passport checks and persistent staff shortages are causing long delays for passengers, who miss their train as a result. As a result, Eurostar trains run daily with hundreds of empty seats between mainland Europe and the UK.
”The thing now is that we are not able to run on the same transport offer as what we had previously in 2019, due to bottlenecks in stations, ” said Cazenave. “We have a big problem in the Eurostar terminals due to the new boarding conditions between the UK and the EU, the impact of COVID and the staff in the stations”.
According to Cazenave, long queues form at Eurostar terminals every day, as all passengers have to have their passports stamped since Brexit. Even when they use the so-called eGates. A lack of border personnel to carry out the checks exacerbates the problem even more.
Passengers are advised to be present at the station up to 90 minutes before departure, but despite this, hundreds of seats still remain empty daily.
Cazenave said that as a result of the COVID pandemic-when international travel was largely ruled out – the number of border employees at the various stations has been drastically reduced. British passengers will also have to have their passports stamped by Brexit.
“As a result, passenger processing times have increased by an average of 30 percent,” says the carrier. Due to the long queues, Eurostar has to choose between slowing down trains or reducing the number of tickets to buy.
In response, Eurostar has hired more staff and installed additional passport control facilities in London. However, the carrier runs into the limited physical space of the international terminals. The facilities at many stations are designed to handle passenger flows within the EU, with minimal formalities for most passengers.
Eurostar has already reduced the number of trains between London and Paris from 18 to 14 per day.
