Train to connect with Eurostar

[ReviewingTheSituation]

I'm travelling by Eurostar in a couple of weeks. It says to arrive '60-90 minutes' before your train.

Train is at 12.30.

Based on this, what's the latest you'd chance arriving at your incoming London train station (which is about 10 mins from St P by tube)?

10am, assuming you’d then get to St Pancras about 10.30 (allowing for delays). There is a lot of walking between platforms etc.

There are often check in/customs delays at the Eurostar.

Yes, I'd say 10am is a good shout.

The 10 min tube journey will be fine 90% of the time but I once got stuck in a stopped tube in a tunnel on my way to the Eurostar without leaving anything like enough time to spare. Don't assume the 10 min journey will definitely only take that long, and have a backup plan for a bus or cab etc.

Initial reaction was 9.30am but 10am should be ok.
Security seems a lot more efficient on Eurostar than flying (I went to Paris last week)

Hmmmm. You're kind of confirming my reservations! It's on a Sunday, and the first train from here gets in at 10.15. On paper, plenty of time, but still feels a bit tight...

Is there a coach?

No - first coach doesn't leave here until 10am!

Frankly, I'd be travelling down the day before and spending the night in a hotel!

I would too. Far too big a risk imo, trains are so unreliable and it only takes a minor incident on the line to cause massive disruption and delays.

You can buy a special train ticket that acknowledges you’re connecting with the Eurostar. If the train to London is delayed and you miss the connection, they’ll put you on the next Eurostar.

I can’t remember what the ticket is called, but ask at your ticket office.

I'd want to stay over the night before. Sunday trains are notoriously unreliable.

I'm holding a room at a Premier Inn in London, but it's ££££, so I'm still considering all options at this point!

It just occurs to me that I could change my Eurostar ticket to Sat night and just book an extra night in Paris instead... (if I'm going to spend money on a hotel somewhere, I'd rather Paris than a Premier Inn somewhere random in London!)

Oh my gosh, I'm SO risk averse, but I definitely happily arrive in London at 10:15 for a 12:30 Eurostar. That will definitely be fine!

Even if the worst happens and you don't get to St Pancras till 12:00 they will whizz you through security and you'll still catch your train!

Oh and you may not even be allowed to join the queue before 11:00, so there is really no point in getting there early.

The ticket pp is referring to is CIV - you need to go to your station to buy the ticket and ask for one to London International. It will 'arrive' later than 10:15 because it includes the journey across London as well, so the arrival time given is at St Pancras. Be careful which one you book for your return journey though, because the departure time is, again, from St Pancras not your actual station, iyswim.

What station do you come into?

Agree with the last poster. We took Eurostar recently and weren’t allowed to join the queue until about an hour before the train. The queue was long but efficient. 10:15 is totally fine

This is the BEST idea!

If it's a Sunday check in advance there's no engineering works on the train & tube too

You have to pay the difference in price if you change your ticket. I would imagine that would be prohibitively expensive this close to travelling. Happy to be wrong though.

We stayed in the premier Inn in Tottenham Hale to catch a 10:30 Eurostar on a Sunday recently. The hotel was an okay price, but it was in zone 3 so the tube cost the four of us more than I wanted it to. But it was an easy and quick journey to St P.

Funny isn't it - all things being equal, the rational part of my brain knows it will be TOTALLY fine! But international travel does funny things to us doesn't it...

We arrive into Marylebone, so it's a quick tube (or - probably jump in a cab straight down the road).

But that train ticket you mention could be a game changer. That would give me the peace of mind I'm after. I'll take a trip to the train station tomorrow and see if they've ever heard of it there.

Transfer onto a different train doesn't cost anything at the moment (it does 7 days out, so I've got a couple of days to get a plan in place).

Over the last few years queues at eurostar have been shocking but 2h in advance is plenty.

If there is no train ticket cost difference, I’d go for the extra night in Paris.

Eurostar sometimes have long queues but that is because they only let people into the security zone about 1hr before the train leaves. So sometimes you get a long line of all the people who have shown up 2hrs in advance and are waiting for the gates to open. When the gates open, the boarding is normally v quick and efficient.

i've also seen plenty of cases of people showing up with 30 mins to spare & get put to the front of the line and get on fine.

So I would be happy getting into Marylebone at 10:15 for a 12:30 Eurostar if that is the way the trains work.

There are no fees, but my understanding is that if you paid £59 for your ticket, but now it would cost £159 then you pay the extra £100.

I have twice been stuck in Europe because of French train strikes. Both times we have rung Eurostar and explained and they've booked us onto later trains free of charge (obviously they would be able to check that our train wasn't running rather than blindly believing us). If there is space on a later service I would be very surprised if they didn't let you travel.

1015 is plenty! You don't really need 90 minutes. We were on it last week and only had about an hour and we're still stood around doing nothing. It's much faster than an airport.

You're right that we'd need to pay the difference in fares, but the fare we paid is still available (because the new train we're looking at is at a much less favourable time than the one we're booked on)