2

Suppose I (EU citizen) want to take an Eurostar train from Brussels to Paris.

I know that to board such trains one has to go through UK border checks (correct me if I am wrong). In the aforementioned case, what would happen? Would I be subject to UK border checks (i.e. I require a passport and a valid ETA) or I can take that train until Paris with no additional checks?

3 Answers 3

10

No, you only pass UK entry border control and Belgian Schengen exit controls if you are heading to London.

Eurostar Blue (to/from London) and Red (ex-Thalys) use different platform clusters at every station they co-serve

You may however be subject to a metal detector on departure, or a spot ID check on arrival in Paris.

1
  • (+1) I have never seen metal detectors in Brussels and they disappeared in Paris 3-4 years ago (IIRC). Eurostar now occasionally use e320 trains on Paris-Amsterdam and platforms are also all over the place at gare du Nord because of renovation work with “Thalys” often on platform 9 or 10 and TER Haut de France on platform 6! Commented Aug 29 at 17:27
14

To complement the other answers, and to explain the confusion:

  • Originally, there were two completely separate services:

    • Eurostar served the routes between London and Paris or Brussels (then extended to Amsterdam), but not Paris to Brussels.
    • Thalys served the Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam and Paris-Brussels-Cologne routes.
  • Recently, both services were merged into a single company (eurostar), but the services keep their separate operations:

    • Trains to/from London require going through passport control (with so-called “juxtaposed controls”, where you go through the passport control of the destination before boarding rather than on arrival), and airport-like security checks
    • All other trains require none of that

So, when you read about “Eurostar”, you are very likely to read about the services to/from London (because for decades those were the only services with that name), rather than the other services, which leads to the confusion.

There used to be a few complications with some trains between Brussels and London stopping in Lille, not sure if those still exist, they were a headache for Eurostar.

1
  • 2
    They solved that headache years ago by keeping the doors closed on the carriages with UK bound passengers and clearing the people out of the carriages of the not UK bound passengers, like they now do in Brussels for the Amsterdam to London trains. Commented Aug 29 at 23:03
6

Suppose I (EU citizen) want to take an Eurostar train from Brussels to Paris.

I know that to board such trains one has to go through UK border checks (correct me if I am wrong).

That's not the case, those trains have recently been rebranded as “Eurostar” but are actually an entirely different service, mostly operated with trains that physically cannot cross the tunnel and enter British train stations (although I have actually seen a Eurostar e320 trainset on the Paris-Amsterdam link).

What does now however happen is police officers walking the length of the train between Brussels and Paris, occasionally challenging specific passengers.

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.