Eurostar alert - 'your travel plan may be disrupted'

[kittypig42]

Hi, new user here. It's our first time to use the Eurostar to go to Lille from St Pancras and back.

I found out that there's industrial action in the French side and E* issued a travel alert allowing passengers to change their bookings free of charge or get a refund.

Our train back to St Pancras is on a Sunday, not sure if the day increase the chances of it being cancelled. E* is still selling tickets in this route and time though.

I want to ask if travelling from Brussels to St Pancras would be easier if the Lille- St Pancras is having an issue? Or is it the same crew and coach from Brussels-Lille-St Pancras? I'm thinking we could travel to Brussels from Lille (another train service? hired car?) then catch the line from there going to St Pancras. Does this make sense? Any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

 

[ThameslinkUser]

All Eurostar trains go via Lille so unfortunately a change of starting point is unlikely to be beneficial.

 

[30907]

What does the alert say, as there is nothing on the ES website or SM?

 

[Alfonso]

Lille is almost in Belgium, so if the trouble is with French railways and you want to travel on your original dates, your realistic return options are likely to be coach from Lille to London (slow), coach to Charleroi then plane, or coach (or possibly train depending what and where the industrial action is in France) to Brussels, Antwerp Rotterdam,Amsterdam, Cologne, Paris and a plane, or to hook van Holland and ferry to Harwich and train to London. If the Eurostar is running but delayed or reduced service then stick with that.

 

[kittypig42]

Thanks so much for the quick replies.

The E* timetable says ES 9141, which is our train, is running but several trains after have been cancelled. So not sure why the travel alert has been issued to us when our train isn't affected based on the timetable.

Train timetable info Lille Europe to London St Pancras Int'l | Eurostar

Check real-time train schedules of our trains between Lille Europe and London St Pancras Int'l.

www.eurostar.com

Unfortunately, we have to travel back on the 25th, though worse case scenario, we can stay another night as the 26th is bank holiday in the UK.

I'm hoping we don't have to do the coach/ flight option but it's good to know our options, so thanks for this.

What does the alert say, as there is nothing on the ES website or SM?

In the email I received, it just says:

We’re sorry that your original travel plans may be disrupted. So we’re giving you more flexibility for your journey from Lille Europe to London St Pancras Int'l.​

then options to amend travel date and time, cancel and refund for evoucher or full refund.

 

[Gloster]

The alert may be to warn you that you may have problems getting to Lille if travelling to the city by train. If your Eurostar is operating, but not others, they may also be warning you that they may not be able to book you on a later service if you miss your train: so be on time.

Or it might just be a general alert sent out to everyone to cover themselves.

 

[mad_rich]

Eurostar often send out these alerts just to give you the heads-up that disruption may happen. It gives you the chance to reschedule or cancel your trip if you’d rather.

But really in your case, I’d just carry on as normal. Keep checking the Eurostar website and be prepared to jump on an earlier or later train if necessary. But don’t worry too much about it. It sounds like they’ve proactively cancelled other trains which gives yours a better chance.

I definitely wouldn’t be trying to go via Brussels.

 

[paul1609]

Lille is almost in Belgium, so if the trouble is with French railways and you want to travel on your original dates, your realistic return options are likely to be coach from Lille to London (slow), coach to Charleroi then plane, or coach (or possibly train depending what and where the industrial action is in France) to Brussels, Antwerp Rotterdam,Amsterdam, Cologne, Paris and a plane, or to hook van Holland and ferry to Harwich and train to London. If the Eurostar is running but delayed or reduced service then stick with that.

If your in the southeast of England and can drive thats the best option. Lille City Centre is only 70 miles from the Channel Tunnel at Calais and its an easy drive in to the city centre on the A25. It rarely takes much over an hour le shuttle to hotel etc.

 

[Brooke]

As a weekly commuter on Eurostar, I receive quite a few of these emails. Generally I ignore them, unless my train is actually cancelled.

 

[deltic]

I think they are to try and get people who are flexible to change their day of travel so there are more spaces to rebook passengers whose trains are cancelled and want to travel on that day. As @Brooke states they seem to be fairly common and can be a bit alarming until you realise your train is still reported as running.

 

[Trainbike46]

Hi, new user here. It's our first time to use the Eurostar to go to Lille from St Pancras and back.

I found out that there's industrial action in the French side and E* issued a travel alert allowing passengers to change their bookings free of charge or get a refund.

Our train back to St Pancras is on a Sunday, not sure if the day increase the chances of it being cancelled. E* is still selling tickets in this route and time though.

I want to ask if travelling from Brussels to St Pancras would be easier if the Lille- St Pancras is having an issue? Or is it the same crew and coach from Brussels-Lille-St Pancras? I'm thinking we could travel to Brussels from Lille (another train service? hired car?) then catch the line from there going to St Pancras. Does this make sense? Any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

Almost all lille-London services start in Brussels or Amsterdam, so switching your route wouldn't help. If the eurostar date and time suit you, I would just stick with it.

I'd add that, occasionally if there is disruption on services from Brussels, Eurostar will have a service from Paris to London make an extra stop to collect the London-bound passengers instead, so Lille-London is likely the most likely to have at least some services running

If eurostar didn't believe the services would run, they wouldn't be selling tickets anymore, though you may experience some delay, they'll get you where you're going.

Unfortunately, we have to travel back on the 25th, though worse case scenario, we can stay another night as the 26th is bank holiday in the UK.

It's good to see this, personally I would just show up on time at Lille, and all will likely work out, but it is helpful that there isn't a massive disaster if there is a big delay, which is unlikely.

 

[30907]

The cancellations shown in red are curious. Every other Brussels train at the moment is running to non-standard times in Belgium because of engineering works.

The ones in red are showing the "normal" times from Brussels, so were never going to run at those times. My guess is some sort of timetabling glitch, and sorting it out belatedly has generated the message for a subset of passengers, maybe.those travelling on Sunday afternoon 25/8?

I think it can be safely ignored

(Googling Eurostar travel alert throws up an undated story which turns out to be about French border staff and Brexit Day.)

 

[kittypig42]

Thanks so much for the replies, very helpful in giving us peace of mind in our first Eurostar trip. We'll stick to our booking and hopefully everything goes according to plan I'll try to give feedback if thread is still open when we return from the trip. Thanks!