I don’t think I have seen a single trip report on Eurostar, at least not a proper one, so I guess I get the honour of being the first one to write and post one. :p
I think Eurostar very much deserves to be mentioned here as well, after all travelling Eurostar is pretty much like flying, only exception is that you stay on the ground.
Introduction to Eurostar
For those who are not familiar with Eurostar, here is a short introduction.
Eurostar is the international train company that operates a high-speed train service from London (Waterloo International) to Paris (Gare du Nord) and Brussels (Gare Midi) using the tunnel under the English Channel.
The journey London-Paris takes about 2h 40min and London-Brussels 2h 30min.
A trip on the Eurostar is probably as close to air travel you can get without spending any time in the air.
At the railway station you check in using a machine and there is a check-in deadline, there is also a premium check-in for first class passengers and frequent travellers.
After check-in there is a passport control and a security check point with x-ray, then you enter a transit hall with shops and restaurants and about 20 minutes before departure there is a boarding announcement.
Once onboard there is both a standard class and a first class with full meal and drink service.
Eurostar also has a frequent traveller program and top-tier members and first class passengers have access to lounges in London, Brussels and Paris as well as fast-track check-in and security and a later check-in deadline.
Eurostar First class
Eurostar changed its service concept in September 2005 and now has two types of first class.
The main first class is called Business Premier and includes late check-in (only 10 minutes), lounge access, and meal service onboard plus full flexibility (unlimited changes and refund).
During some days of the week (especially weekends) when the business demand is lower they offer Leisure select, which is mostly targeted to leisure travellers.
Leisure select is identical to Business Premier. Same carriages and seats, same meal and drink service, free newspapers onboard etc, however it does not give late check-in, lounge access, and the tickets usually have restrictions.
Generally the service is also a bit slower as the people in Leisure select are obviously there to enjoy the service which may not be the case with all passengers in Business Premier.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/jacob_m/Eurostar%20Paris-London/807ca0aa.jpg
Eurostar First class carriage
jacob_m
Dec 23, 05, 7:43 am
Paris/Gare du Nord-London/Waterloo International
Eurostar train 9011
Departure: 08:13
Arrival: 09:51
Class : First class/Leisure select
Carriage 7, Seat 25
A cold morning at 7:15 am I took the RER train from my house to Gare du Nord, the northern station in Paris.
Check-in deadline is 30 mins before departure so I had 15 mins at the station to do some last minute shopping and make a seat change at the ticket office. Very nice staff at the Paris ticket office!
Apparently there was a technical problem at the station so there was a huge queue to check-in, when there were only 30 mins left until departure (check-in deadline) I was not even close to the check-in machines and 10 mins before departure I had still not made it.
At 8:03 the departure board switched to “Enregistrement terminé/Check-in closed” and a few people got worried, but it wasn’t really our fault and fortunately we all got onboard.
Funnily there is both a French passport control and a British passport and immigration control at Gare du Nord, so you technically enter United Kingdom before you have even left Paris.
Several shops in the transit area but no time for any shopping as they wanted all passengers onboard as quickly as possible to minimise the delay.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/jacob_m/Eurostar%20Paris-London/c534baa6.jpg
Eurostar trains at Gare du Nord in Paris. The international transit area is on the first floor to the left
A nice attendant was waiting at the entrance to my carriage, she checked my ticket, ticked my name on a list, and welcomed me onboard.
As this was a morning departure from Paris the crew onboard was French, but naturally they all spoke English as well.
They had free newspapers and magazines at the entrance including Le Figaro, The Times, Financial Times, some French magazines and the two latest issues of The Economist.
Quite a few people onboard with a load factor of 70% I would estimate.
The train left at 8:30 am, almost 20 mins late.
Soon after departure the crew handed out menus. On this morning train they offered English or Continental breakfast served at the seat.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/jacob_m/Eurostar%20Paris-London/cd14ab4f.jpg
The continental breakfast
I went for the continental breakfast which was excellent, especially the fruits were rather different but very tasteful.
Had a look at the people next to me who chose the English breakfast which seemed nice as well.
The attendants passed several times with coffee, tea and more bread and individually removed our trays when finished.
After the meal service they offered hot towels.
At the same time as train director announced we were entering the tunnel under the English channel (about two hours after departure) the attendants made a drink round with apple juice and water.
Due to the late departure from Paris and some further problems on the way we arrived almost 40 mins late at London Waterloo station around 10:30 am.
The attendants disembarked first and wished all passengers good-bye when leaving the train.
As passports had already been checked in Paris the only thing remaining was HM Customs for people who had goods to declare.
In fact I was sitting on a Bakerloo line train just 10 mins after arrival.
jacob_m
Dec 23, 05, 7:47 am
London/Waterloo International-Paris/Gare du Nord
Eurostar train 9048
Departure: 18:11
Arrival: 21:53
Class : First class/Leisure select
Carriage 8, Seat 41
Arrived at Waterloo station about 45 minutes before departure and made my way to the Eurostar part of the station called "Waterloo International".
No lines at check-in and both the security check and passport control were a breeze.
Just like in Paris they had both passport controls at the point of departure, so there were four French customs officials working in London.
The departure lounge (transit hall) was rather spacious with several shops including two WH Smith, a shop with souvenirs and British food, a perfume shop, Tie Rack, bureau de change, two restaurants and probably something else I have forgotten.
No lounge access for me unfortunately but I noticed the entrance to the lounge. As the station is right in the middle of the city centre lounge access doesn’t really matter in contrast to a large international airport where you may need to arrive two hours before departure and where you also need to allow time for the airport transfer.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/jacob_m/Eurostar%20Paris-London/b78a88bd.jpg
Eurostar check-in at Waterloo International in London
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/jacob_m/Eurostar%20Paris-London/38f7890b.jpg
Eurostar trains at Waterloo station in London
Boarding announcement was made 20 mins before departure.
Same procedure as in the morning, a young woman greeted me at the entrance to my carriage, checked my ticket, ticked my name on her paper and then welcomed me onboard.
French and English newspapers and magazines were available at the entrance.
A French crew on this train as well as we arrived late at night in Paris.
Not a lot of people onboard, less than 50% so plenty of space, after departure we were invited to switch seats if we wanted more space.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/jacob_m/Eurostar%20Paris-London/d8ff5c4d.jpg
The first class carriage on the train to Paris
Menus were handed out for the dinner service, the attendant noticed I was reading FT and addressed me in English and continued to do so during the rest of the train ride which was nice, I do speak perfect French but sometimes it is just nice not having to.
The four crewmembers serving my carriage were absolutely fantastic, 10 out of 10 for the service.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/jacob_m/Eurostar%20Paris-London/d08b3ba1.jpg
The menu
Starter
Lemon pepper chicken with a red pesto penne pasta salad
Main course
Shepherds pie with a light crumb topping
or
Delice of salmon in a cream sauce with Mediterranean couscous, French beans and sundried tomatoes
Dessert
Marmalade bread and butter pudding with a light orange coulis
Worcester Gold, this cheddar-style hard cheese is made in the county of Worcester and has a rich creamy smooth texture
Drink service
White wines
“Les Jamelles” Chardonnay vin de pays d’Oc 2004
Kressman Monopole Bordeaux Sauvignon Blanc 2003
Red wines
Château Tour de Mirambeau Bordeaux Supérieur 2003
La Vieille Ferme Costières de Nîmes Rouge 2003
The service started right after departure with hot towels and a drink service and I asked for a glass of champagne, the champagne served onboard was Pannier.
Afterwards the meal tray was handed out with the starter, the lemon pepper chicken. Really nice to find real cutlery onboard instead of these plastic things you frequently get in the air.
Another drink service followed for the meal and I asked for the Bordeaux red wine.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/jacob_m/Eurostar%20Paris-London/e798897d.jpg
The meal tray and the starter
The starter plate was removed and shortly afterwards the attendant passed with the main course with a choice of either Shepherds pie or salmon, I had the salmon which was really good.
More bread and wine was offered and finally coffee and tea.
After the meal hot towels and chocolates were handed out.
The only thing missing maybe was something to drink with the coffee like liquor, Cognac or Whiskey, but definitely not a big deal.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a132/jacob_m/Eurostar%20Paris-London/b82d3e60.jpg
The main course, the salmon
The good thing about travelling Eurostar is that, because of the journey time of two and a half hours, you do have time to enjoy the service and enjoy the meal in your own pace if you wish to, this in contrast to Paris-London by plane for example which takes only 45 mins.
Overall very nice and professional service onboard, the food was very good and so was the wine. A decent first class experience!
Especially two young female attendants were absolutely fantastic and passed several times and asked if everything was OK and if I wanted anything else.
The two and a half hours back to Paris passed in no time due to the nice service and we actually managed to arrive in Paris 10 mins ahead of timetable.
Hassle-free arrival in Paris as well and I was sitting on the RER less than 10 minutes after arrival.
Overall a very nice experience and a very good alternative to the plane on this short route.
sftrvlr
Dec 23, 05, 12:21 pm
Excellent report, jacob_m. Thanks for sharing. Service appears to be just like business class in the air. What's the seat pitch like? Recline? Any entertainment onboard? Audio? Video?
airoli
Dec 23, 05, 1:48 pm
Interesting report on something I always wanted to try - too bad the Eurostar is so expensive! Thank you for writing this.
FLYGVA
Dec 23, 05, 4:13 pm
Thanks for this report in "Altitude 0". If I am able to get one of this special deals, which are sometimes availabel, I will try the Eurostar. Unfortunately :D the plane (and Heathrow Express) was cheaper ....
NickW
Dec 23, 05, 9:48 pm
Thanks for this report in "Altitude 0"
Rather less - in fact - given that at its deepest point the Channel Tunnel is about 115m below sea level!
Strawb
Dec 24, 05, 7:56 pm
Nice report Jacob. I did a Premium First report a few months back which I posted on v-flyer.com. You can read it here.
http://www.v-flyer.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7679
francophile
Dec 24, 05, 8:39 pm
Excellent report. Thanks.
TrayflowInUK
Dec 25, 05, 8:20 am
Mrs. TrayflowInUK and I did Waterloo-Brussels in First Class in 2003 and the experience then was exactly as jacob_m described, except our trains were even more punctual. It was a great experience.
Shortly after we travelled, Section 1 of the CTRL was opened, reducing travel times to their present level. This basically involved an upgrade of the rails from the tunnel portal at Folkestone to northern Kent, just south of the Thames crossing.
Upon completion of Section 2 of the CTRL (http://www.ctrl.co.uk) (Channel Tunnel Rail Link) in 2007, travel times London to Paris will be reduced to 2h15 and to Brussels 2h00, and departures will go from St. Pancras, facilitating connections from northern Britain. I used to live with in view of the Thames Tunnel construction area, a 3-km tunnel that's part of Section 2.
Now that I live in the northern part of the country, I can't wait for the day I can make it to Brussel or Paris with one connection! Today, it's inconvenient for me to connect with Eurostar with any luggage to speak of, as I would come into King's Cross/St. Pancras (north London), then have to navigate the tube to Waterloo station (south London). It's quite a walk even from the Waterloo tube station to Waterloo International if you have a bit of luggage with you.
It's a great way to travel, but I rarely found it to be price-comparable to other travel options :(
Re seat pitch and comfort, I recall there being nowhere near as much room as an intercontinental business class seat. Compared to first class on DB or non-TGV SNCF, I'd reckon there's a bit more room. But the service really was oustanding.
jacob_m
Dec 25, 05, 9:51 am
Thanks for the nice comments!! :)
Didn't know the deepest point of the channel tunnel was as low as 115 m below sea level, quite impressive!! You really don't notice it when on the train...
I guess it's quite unusual with a trip report at FT taking place partly below sea level... :D
Excellent report, jacob_m. Thanks for sharing. Service appears to be just like business class in the air. What's the seat pitch like? Recline? Any entertainment onboard? Audio? Video?
The seat pitch is not really like business class in the air, but there is definitely not a lack of space onboard.
The first class carriages have a 2-1 configuration instead of a 2-2 configuration (as in second class), so the seats are wider and there is more leg room. If you're travelling alone you can ask for a "solo"-seat when reserving the ticket.
No real entertainment onboard, but on the other hand the journey takes only two and a half hours and you probably spend half of that time eating and drinking.
Quite a good selection of newspapers and magazines available, and the first class seats have power sockets as well if you want to use your laptop.
tsastor
Dec 28, 05, 7:09 am
The first class carriages have a 2-1 configuration instead of a 2-2 configuration (as in second class), so the seats are wider and there is more leg room. If you're travelling alone you can ask for a "solo"-seat when reserving the ticket.
No real entertainment onboard, but on the other hand the journey takes only two and a half hours and you probably spend half of that time eating and drinking.
Quite a good selection of newspapers and magazines available, and the first class seats have power sockets as well if you want to use your laptop.
Really nice report. I personally prefer trains and with inclusive meal service and lounge access it would be my choice for travel btw London and Paris as well. Too bad not all train services are like that! Since it is city centre to city centre service, I'd think the travel time would be much less than by plane? And calculating all transfer cost, taxes and fuel surcharges, is it even more expensive?
Anyway most of the journey seems to be having a meal without bumps to interrupt (I assume the train rides smoothly as well?). Instead of some crappy in-train (not on-track?) entertainment, I'd much rather be reading a good book or listening to some (classical) music from my mp-player while sipping some tea or red wine and seeing the countryside pass by...
TMLeafs
Dec 28, 05, 11:22 am
I took the Eurostar from Paris to London earlier this year. There were 3 of us and we all enjoyed the trip. We all for 1st class because we all were still 25 at the time and still qualifed for "youth" fares. The price for adult economy was the same as 1st class youth. Since we thought we had to pay adult fares we already had the money set aside for the trip.
We could have saved 50% off of what we were going to spend if we took youth economy. But we figured that we already had that amount put aside, we should just spend it on 1st class and relax.
I'm glad we decided on the Eurostar too because the day we left for London, Paris got hit by a snowstorm. Being Canadian, the amount of snow they got was nothing compared to what we get here. But i guess they're not used to it and it slowed down the city pretty quick. I'll never forget watching ppl trying to clear their store fronts of snow with only brooms.
When we finally got to Gare du Nord i found it weird because there were alot of ppl speaking English without accents. It turned out that because of the storm alot of flights out of CDG were cancelled or delayed. So alot of ppl were trying to get a ticket on the Eurostar to get to London so they could fly out of LHR.
It was a little weird being in 1st class on the Eurostar because i've never even been in VIA1 up here in Canada.
jacob_m
Dec 29, 05, 6:15 pm
Really nice report. I personally prefer trains and with inclusive meal service and lounge access it would be my choice for travel btw London and Paris as well. Too bad not all train services are like that! Since it is city centre to city centre service, I'd think the travel time would be much less than by plane? And calculating all transfer cost, taxes and fuel surcharges, is it even more expensive?
That was very much my point as well.
I have travelled lots of times between Paris and London, and previously I've mostly been flying BMI LHR-CDG as I try to stick to *A.
But BMI removed business class on this route earlier this year, scrapped everything that can be considered service in economy, and introduced the infamous "tiny fares" which are neither supposed to give points, nor any *A benefits such as lounge access and extra luggage (although this has changed).
After that it was just not a good choice anymore and I was fed up with the airline, sure there are BA and AF left and all the LCCs of course, but I gave Eurostar a try and was very positively surprised, haven't been on a Eurostar train for several years...
The plane takes 45-60 minutes (depending on the time of the day), the train takes 2h 40min, but taking into account the traveltime getting to/from Heathrow and CDG and check-in deadlines the train is actually faster.
Also, the perfect service and the nice three-courses meal onboard does easily beat any inflight service in the air on the same route.
Regarding prices the main first class Business Premier is indeed rather pricey, but for people travelling for leisure who are flexible with dates Leisure select (first class without lounge access and ticket flexibility) is available from 180-190 euro Paris-London return.
Taking into account airport taxes and fuel surcharges and the cost of airport transfers (central Paris-CDG is at least 8 euro one way) it is not all that bad and comparable to flight tickets on many airlines in economy.
BigLar
Dec 29, 05, 10:29 pm
Well, we took the Eurostar from London to Paris a couple of years ago. The price difference between Economy and First Class was pretty steep, so we went in "coach".
All in all, not bad at all. When you consider you get from (roughly) downtown London to (roughly again) downtown Paris, and you avoid all the hassles getting to/from airports, etc., it's certainly a viable option.
We're planning on doing it again this spring (Paris to London this time). I'll have to check the prices, but I fear we will be sitting in the back again. It's been a lo-o-o-ng time since we qualified for youth fares. :)