Of the 900 seats on a Eurostar train, up to 350 may be closed for sale during morning and evening rush hours.
Some trains thus run with hundreds of empty seats between Paris and London or between London and Brussels despite strong demand from travellers.
The fault with the boarding formalities linked to Brexit, underlines the British newspaper
The Guardian
, which reports the comments of the leaders of the cross-Channel company.
The latter announced yesterday the absorption of the Thalys brand by the end of the year as part of the merger between the two operators.
British border police officers are not numerous enough on either side of the Channel, their numbers having "
drastically reduced
" since the Covid-19 pandemic, underlines Gwendoline Cazenave, director general of Eurostar Group.
In addition, British passports must be stamped, even if the traveler goes through an automated gate.
A process "
which takes almost 30% more time [than before]
", she adds.
Passengers are advised to arrive at the station at least 90 minutes before the departure of their train.
To prevent delays and avoid bottlenecks, Eurostar is therefore forced to reduce the number of passengers to board.
Fewer seats... but more expensive
These problems partly explain the suspension of services from the intermediate stations of Calais, Ebbsfleet and Ashford, as well as the discontinuation of the seasonal line between London and the French Alps (this one being taken over by the tour operator Travelski).
A restoration of these services is not envisaged until the boarding problems are resolved.
From Amsterdam, only 250 seats can be filled due to a lack of space for border controls in the Dutch station.
Enough to dissuade travelers from favoring rail, while the Amsterdam-London air link is one of the busiest in Europe, underlines Gwendoline Cazenave.
Read alsoThalys/Eurostar merger: which model will win?
Who says fewer seats sold says loss of profitability for Eurostar.
Result: passengers pay more for their ticket, as admitted by its commercial director, François Le Doze.
Today, the cross-Channel company only runs 14 Paris-London round trips per day, compared to 18 in 2019. It estimates that its offer should return to normal in the second half of the year, thanks to more fluid border formalities.
