Eurostar - How important is it to get there at the arrival time they state?

[Hamilson]

I've booked a 9am train out of St Pancras, which seemed quite civilised at the time, but when I've counted backwards from their arrival time (7:45), added travel time from home plus a bit for things to go wrong, it means leaving home at 5:30am.

What happens if I don't arrive until 8:30?

I'm trying to remember which days and times the Interrail experts on Facebook say are best....I think they mention Sunday afternoons and midweek, yes.

As someone who is using an Interrail pass and coming all the way from Cornwall, I often catch the last or penultimate train of the night, which tends to have more capacity.

Keep an eye on European public holidays, too. Mind you, the only time we sailed through Gare du Nord with zero queues- in a classic "pinch me!" moment- was in August (midweek). I think that was put down to all the French having buggered off to the coast.

You most likely won't get through security and passport control.

St Pancras is a lot better than Gare du Nord - it is always a shit show.

The website 'The Man in Seat 61' has a lot of useful train information and also photos of interiors, if you think you may be more comfortable in certain carriages or seats. I got the last seat of a Eurostar carriage with no window as one of 3 tickets left on a train. Was thinking it would be a bit disappointing, but then the day of travel exceeded 30 degrees outside so I was really pleased NOT to have window and hot sun to contend with and I must say it was very comfortable.

You need to arrive at St Pancras at7.45

It's been some time since I travelled on the Eurostar. Used to do it semi-regularly about 10 years ago when my DD was on a year abroad in Paris.

It had a slightly trimmed down version of airport style security at St Pancras back then plus passports. It did take a while to get through and I imagine it is even more beefed up now.

Arriving at 8.30am for a 9.00am departure will pretty much guarantee that you will miss your train. I would certainly be sure to be there by 7.45.

Until after the check in process: Dt Pancras' waiting area is disgusting and an embarrassment. They need to reclaim space from the poncy shops we have at that station and actually give eurostar travellers proper waiting facilities

We carefully chose our seats using the diagrams on the web site. And then on the day the trains for both out and return journeys were changed from the ones scheduled and we ended up in totally different seats....

8am is fine. However, the staff are normally super helpful and they will let you skip most of the queue if you're not-deliberately running late and you politely tell them you're worried about missing it.

Even then you should expect the luggage and 2x passport checks (exit + French) to take about 20-30 minutes, and you'll want to be on board minimum 5 minutes before it leaves.

Used to take 15-20 mins on a quiet day before Brexit 😢 I wouldn't risk less than 45 minutes now.

There are security checks, passport checks and border control to attend. There are long queues and waiting lounges at St Pancras. I would get there early as possible.

Given you're travelling from some way away, I'd aim to get there by 7.45 to allow for delays on the journey there. I aim for 45 to 60 mins in advance, but I live quite locally.

As others have said, the hard deadline is that you need to scan your ticket to get through the departure gates by 30 mins before the train departure. If you're in the queue before that they should call you to the front so you make it through in time. But if you're not there 30 mins before departure you won't be able to travel.

We've just got back from a holiday using Eurostar and it really was relaxed and better than flying! We arrived earlier than stated due to experiencing delays en route in the past, but they didn't let us through until about ten minutes before the time they said. The actual process through security and passports was smooth and easy. However, it was a couple of hours later than you are travelling so earlier could be more chaotic. I wouldn't risk getting there at 8.30, 8am at the very latest.

I went early morning, mid week to Lille in November.
There were a few people ahead in the queue, but it was mostly business travellers who know what they're doing.
Took 10mins to scan ticket, get me and my rucksack through security and through UK and French passport inc EES.

However, I've also (accidently) gone through the first week of school summer holidays and it was BUSY! Organised... But the queues were long.

Lille was a nice day trip.

This is a regular occurrence. They have different rolling stock with different seat layouts so allocations get changed. V annoying when you have booked 6 months in advance!

Agree with this, 8am should be fine but 30 mins really not enough any more. It used to be SO easy pre Brexit - sigh.

Still loads better than flying because you can carry SO much stuff with you (we have come back with a table, a telly, all sorts) plus the security stuff works well when you get through the gate. But both St P and Gare du Nord are busy stations and back up very quickly if the flow is inhibited for any reason.

Agree with others to get there earlier.

At a later time you will be in with the queue for the next train. Some trains leave 30 mins apart if one is for Brussels and one is for Paris.

You have to queue to scan your boarding pass, then bag and body scan, then 3 stages of border/passport check. They also take time boarding the train. You’d be really silly to get there at 8.30.

I see the Eurostar at the other end (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam). The timing for the European routes is be there (on platform) a good 20 minutes ahead is generally fine.

But for the routes to the IK, there is a separate queue and passport control to go through…the queues are always long and slow moving (I often get a Pret near the checkin area in Brussels and sit there for 20 minutes relative comfort (and people watching 😂 ) before going to my platform, so see how slow it is to move.

Thinking of it like airport security is a very good way to look at it.

It’s much more like going through an airport than getting on a train.

Not the point, I know, but in to me the experience at the ghastly Gare du Nord is even worse…

You have to go through an absolutely huge queue for security, particularly for 9am departures, I cut through St Pancras once and couldn't work out what the huge queue 200 yards from the gates was- it was the security queue for Eurostar- you might make it but there is a good chance you won't.

I'm not arguing with the 'Gare du Nord is awful' posts; I know it famously can be, but we've always found it to be fine, and so just posting as much to offer some hope that OP might be lucky too! (Just a bit grim if you stand out the front to get some air and can only breathe pissy stench, that's all....)

The queues can be quite long, I would be there at least an hour before departure

You're going to confuse a lot of people who have no idea that the Thalys trains between Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris have been bought up and rebranded by Eurostar, so you can also catch a Eurostar WITHOUT starting/ ending in the UK.

This discussion is about the classic cross channel Eurostars and their annoying extra-EU border requirements.

How did it go?