Eurostar and being on time!

melancholly

I'm sure I'm just not using the right search terms, but I can't find any info on how often the Eurostar arrives at destinations on time!! We're due to arrive in at 16.07 at Brussels Midi on a Saturday afternoon, and can get a connecting train at 16.40 or 17.40. The 16.40 one is £23 cheaper, so obviously would be preferable, but I don't want to end up arriving 20 mins late and then running around a station I've not been to before and missing the connection! Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but intercity travel in the UK has been rubbish for me lately with delays of up to an hour!

Any helpful links to websites or suggestions would be gratefully received!

Victors_Bruvver

What is your final destination and have you already purchased your Eurostar tickets and from whom?

melancholly

bit complicated - have got the eurostar tickets already from tesco deals vouchers. going down to paris where we have an overnight train booked through raileurope leaving at 20.32. either the 16.07 or the 17.07 gives enough time for the change on the metro in paris from gare du nord to austerlitz. (have to be in brussels for the end of the trip and couldn't use deals vouchers unless we got a return to the same place)

Victors_Bruvver

And I thought that I had a complicated life! (Sorry)

I cannot make out what you are exactly trying to achieve here but take a look at this website; www.seat61.com it is a cracking site and will at best give you some help in what you are trying to achieve. I am under the impression that if you have bought a ticket(s) for example via Paris and that train is late, you ask the conductor to endorse the ticket to say that it was late and the other train operator is obliged to take you on the next available departure. Go look at the man in seat 61 it is full of interesting and useful comments on train travel. Look out for the article, and here in MSE

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=416607

on connecting with your Eurostar here in the UK. Basically you have a Eurostar booking, you need to get to Waterloo or Ashford so you go to your local station and ask for a London International CIV, a no restrictions open return that also includes London underground gate passes for getting across to Waterloo.

melancholly

i just wanted to know what the chances are of the eurostar arriving on time so that i don't book tickets for a train i'm likely to miss! and the seat61 website says 91.5% were within 15mins of sceduled arrival time so that's pretty good..... means i can go for the 4.40pm one and be pretty confident that, with half an hour to spare and the tickets bought already, i can make the connection!

Alan_Bowen

Eurostar, particularly to Brussels has never let me down timewise, but unlike at paris where you just walk off the platform without any checks, in Brussels there are passport checks on arrival. I would not expect a train arriving at that time to be very busy and if you are at the front of the train you can be through in a minute or two but when full the train holds over 700 passengers so make sure you are ready at the door on arrival. Maybe I misread your earlier posts but I read it to say you are arriving in Brussels to get a connecting train to Paris, why on earth would you do that when there are direct trains? the cost of your tickets and the time taken must negate most of the benefit of the cheap ticket in the first place?

Voyager2002

Apparently Eurostar is now on 98 per cent punctuality.
http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/about_eurostar/press_release/2007_05_14_punctuality.jsp

However, #6 highlights a serious problem. When I arrived at Waterloo today, I was in a carriage some way from the exit, and so hordes of people, mostly moving slowly wheeling luggage, blocked my route for leaving the platform. It took me ten minutes to get to the exit from the Eurostar terminal. Had there been a passport check, with all those peopl in front of me, it might well have taken longer.

melancholly

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

Maybe I misread your earlier posts but I read it to say you are arriving in Brussels to get a connecting train to Paris, why on earth would you do that when there are direct trains? the cost of your tickets and the time taken must negate most of the benefit of the cheap ticket in the first place?

we have to return from brussels and couldn't get tickets that arrived and departed from different stations. it seemed better to get all the travelling done at the start of the trip....! it sounds odd, i know, but we'd have had to pay for the brussels-paris bit somehow, whether it be travelling it on day one or later.