Today’s live text updates
Here’s today’s #CrossChannelRail summary: learning lessons from Lille and Paris https://peertube.netzbegruenung.de/w/tS3mQ7oERDvcbqtTZdKCai
Today’s #CrossChannelRail proves this sort of argument - make Lille the hub for London - doesn’t really work. Terminal capacity in Lille is too small to have anything more than about 250 passengers an hour changing onto trains to London there https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/britische-zollbeamte-spezielle-zuege-und-terminals-eine-verbindung-von-der-schweiz-nach-london-koennte-an-den-kosten-scheitern-ld.1877990
This whole Channel Tunnel / long distance trains thing is big money, big ego, big expectation. Sell people a big plan, then try to work out how you’re going to do it. But - apart from some surprises like Strasbourg all I’ve been doing is expectation management, ultimately.
As this #CrossChannelRail project nears its end, I’m struck by two things: I now know so much about this Channel Tunnel topic. But the chances anyone is going to do anything useful with what I know (once it’s written up) are so very slim.
Link to the #CrossChannelRail stream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGypP-RPiwg
Voici la présentation de l'événement #CrossChannelRail à Paris à 18h00 CEST
https://bit.ly/CrossChannelRailParis
Il y aura également une diffusion en direct, si la qualité du wifi sur place le permet. Et bien sûr, si vous supportez mon accent quand je parle français ! Le lien sera publié juste avant le début.
Ahhhh the joyous ETA to go to the UK #CrossChannelRail
As a UK-EU dual national I thankfully do not need this!
On the boarding times for #CrossChannelRail how about this as an idea:
BIG / parallel boarding stations
90 min max
60 min recommended
30 min minimum
(St Pancras, Paris, Bruxelles)
SMALL / serial boarding stations
60 min max
40 min recommended
20 min minimum
(Lille, Rotterdam, maybe Amsterdam)
SNCF is efficient at two things
- line speed of trains
- filling the max % of seats on its trains
It’s inefficient at everything else
- staffing (you don’t need so many people!)
- dwell times
- connecting or reversing TGV units
- timetabling
- passenger flow at stations
There’s also the issue of serial versus parallel boarding of #CrossChannelRail services
At London St P, Paris and (sometimes) Bruxelles, check in for multiple trains happens in parallel (so you can get stuck behind passengers for other trains)
At Lille, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Ebbsfleet and Ashford previously it’s serial - the next train boards only after the previous one departed
Note here I’m NOT talking about changing trains. I’m talking about how long ahead of your first train you’re taking you’d arrive at the station.
Because arriving too early is a waste of time.
Related: when I used to fly a fair bit, I used to know queues early morning at Schönefeld would be worse than at other times of day
But as an irregular #CrossChannelRail passenger you cannot know something like that, as it’s not communicated
So everyone acts extra cautiously and hence arrives too early
Pondering today how all these #CrossChannelRail procedures also result in inefficient passenger decisions
If I’m taking a long distance DB ICE I’d aim to arrive at - say - Berlin Hbf 15-20 mins before departure
But I know I can go straight to the train
Faced with a 30 minute minimum check in time, but with the fear the queue will go slow… what do you do? Aim to arrive an hour ahead, to be sure?
I’ve just observed the whole check in and departure procedure for Eurostar here at Lille Europe. You could easily have arrived 15 mins before the 0835 train and still boarded, no problem. But those arriving an hour ahead for the 0931 train faced a long ish queue. #CrossChannelRail
Here’s this morning’s intro video #CrossChannelRail
Also I’m going to have to curtail the project - I’m going to go home Friday and skip the two Alpine stations I’d planned to check Saturday
Welcome to today's thread - #CrossChannelRail Day 18 - 3 April - Boulogne - Paris
On the agenda today:
Stations
Lille Europe
Paris Nord
Paris Est
Today's routes on the routes map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crosschannelrail-2025_1148540#8/49.903/2.370
Text updates are auto-generated from Mastodon – follow me on Mastodon @jon@gruene.social
Some updates will also be occasionally be posted on Bluesky – follow me @jonworth.eu
Today’s introduction and summary videos
All the #CrossBorderRail daily videos are on my Peertube channel
Today’s photos
Today’s full album on Flickr
Today’s sites visited
Paris Nord
Paris Est
Today’s route
The full zoomable and scrollable map, including today’s route, is on uMap here.
