Eurostar questions

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Hello. We're travelling to France by train next week and I don't know what I am allowed to take on board the Eurostar and what is forbidden. We're taking a picnic and I'm wondering if I am allowed to take a sharp knife to cut cheese and bread and so on or if this is not allowed. Also, are there rules about liquids like there are on aeroplanes?

I suspect a sharp knife of any useful size will be frowned on but the picnic won't actually take place until we are already in France and on the next train to the south, so do you think it would be all right to put the sharp knife in my suitcase and only get it out after we've changed trains? Anyone done this?

And do they X-ray your luggage on the way onto the Eurostar? If so, I suppose they might not like me having a knife in there!

Many thanks for any help!

I have had a look at Eurostar's actual website (there is a section on it re prohibited items) and no household cutlery is allowed on board the train. Luggage is x-rayed before boarding. I would cut the cheese and bread beforehand.

P.S If you're departing from St Pancras the lines for boarding can be very long.

Oh, thanks so much. I couldn't find the info on their site. And yes, St Pancras. Thanks for the tip.

After passing through the Eurostar check in gates at St Pancras, you queue again for security checks, the same as in airports. Bags and luggage go through the machines, you walk through the electronic arch. Sometimes they pick out bags for random checks, and ask you to unpack them - this happened to my son, for no reason. Then you have to queue again for Passport Control.
We allow about 45 mins- 1hr before our train for this, as there can be long queues as Attila says.

Thanks again. That is quite a long old queue then. I had imagined we might get through a bit faster. Does anyone know if the queues are as awful early in the morning? Our train is at 8 and we're coming from the other side of London. We currently have a taxi booked for 6.30 but maybe we should aim for a taxi at 6 to be on the safe side?

No ban on liquids...I took a 2l jug of soup on the Eurostar My train was the 0620 and I was at St P at 0530 when there were no queues, but by 0600 they were quite long.

You're all very kind. Thanks! So do you think a 6.30 taxi from Richmond is mad or okay? I have no idea at all how the traffic might be at that time. Glad to hear no ban on liquids as I plan to take a litre of apple juice!

If you get one of the official porters you don't need to queue as long, I'm not sure what the deal was, but it cost a few quid (I think it was about £20 but that was a couple of years ago) and made life a lot easier. They ease you through the customs/baggage checks and then meet you again when the train is due to load up.

Porters? That sounds handy! Off to find out...

Oh, no porters. Shame. That sounded really useful.

Really? Don't they do them anymore? It was a really useful service. The official porters were hanging around the taxi drop-off point when we arrived. Maybe they're called something else?

Taxi at 6:30 sounds very tight to me. I would move it to 6am