FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Eurostar - London to Brussels with an option to Lille?
Old Jan 19, 2015, 2:39 am
  #8  
stut
Moderator: UK and Ireland & Europe
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Biggleswade
Programs: SK*G, Lots of Blue Elsewhere
Posts: 13,611
It has changed. Long story - google "Lille Loophole" for the full details.

Basically, Belgium started objecting to the UK Border Agency insisting on checking passports of Brussels-Lille passengers, as this is against the Schengen agreement - at one point allegedly threatening immigration officers with arrest. This resulted in a situation where Lille passengers didn't have to show ID, so anyone wanting to enter the UK illegally could quite easily buy a Brussels-Lille ticket, travel to Lille, and stay one, holed up in the café bar or similar.

Once this was publicised, there was a predictable response in the UK, and incoming immigration checks were introduced at St Pancras for Brussels arrivals.

The eventual solution was to have Brussels-Lille passengers confined to a single, guarded carriage, aligned with a dedicated Schengen section of the Eurostar platform at Lille.
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