Regional Eurostar Lounges

[GrandCentral]

As a lad I remember Eurostar signage being installed at Newcastle Station in the mid 90s. Even as an 8 year old this confused me but I have since read that Eurostar lounges and other things were installed at certain stations on the network.
Can anyone recall this and does any evidence of these still exist. Must have been a massive waste of money.

 

[Highlandspring]

There was one at Glasgow Central which I think is a cake shop and cafe now. I liked the big Le Eurostar habite ici sign on the shed at Longsight depot (I can't remember if there was there one on the cage at Polmadie as well?). It was a bit of Franglais because they were always referred to in French as le TGV TransMancheSuperTrain.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Crewe as well, I think.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Crewe as well, I think.

It's now the Cheshire Lounge, which I think is effectively a 1st class lounge, but sponsored by Cheshire bodies (development agencies, councils, tourist boards etc).
It took a long time for them to take down the signs pointing to the Eurostar lounge, during a fairly recent repaint.

 

[Highlandspring]

Part of the difficulty with Regional Eurostar was the requirement to seperate international and domestic passengers after the former had passed through the necessary security and immigration screening (which was in itself a challenge to set up at stations like Crewe, Darlington or Glasgow Central), which was why the lounges were built. The trains themselves had to be kept securely 'sterile' between services, hence the large fenced and guarded 'cage' at Polmadie and the big shed at Longsight. I love the concept of Regional Eurostar and Nightstar services but the whole set up would have been an expensive nightmare for the railway to manage if it had ever got off the ground. Regional Eurostar and Nightstar are one of the most interesting could have been.. things of the immediate pre/post privatisation era.

 

[ag51ruk]

It's now the Cheshire Lounge, which I think is effectively a 1st class lounge, but sponsored by Cheshire bodies (development agencies, councils, tourist boards etc).
It took a long time for them to take down the signs pointing to the Eurostar lounge, during a fairly recent repaint.

I thought that the Crewe one was on platform 5 near to the lifts (the signs on the door were certainly there in the early 2000s) and is now a waiting room? - the Cheshire/First Class Lounge was previously staff accomodation

 

[GrandCentral]

I'm glad I wasn't just going mad, I knew I had seen signage. I seem to remember that it was removed from Newcastle in about 2002, so quite late really. I've desperately been trying to search for photos of the signage and lounges but can't seem to find anything at all.

Its a shame that Regional Eurostar was a non starter, it was really sold to the regions to justify the huge cost of the Channel Tunnel. I always thought that Nightstar might have had a future if the political will was there though, as well as locos capable of the job.

 

[Highlandspring]

Sadly there's very little information out there on the whole debacle, which came just at the wrong time as BR was in the midst of privatisation turmoil and the low cost airline revolution took hold in Europe. As you've noted there are hardly any images of signage etc.. though there are quite a few pictures of Eurostar sets in unlikely places and Nightstar coach test runs. I wish someone would write a decent in depth book about it all.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Nightstar might have worked originally, but then the low-cost airlines would have killed it (and Regional Eurostar) in the same way they've near killed mainland European sleepers. Really, the move to St Pancras has made it (Regional E*) near obsolete anyway - the transfer is easy and you have the whole day's worth of trains rather than just one or two. And luggage has changed since then too - back then large heavy family cases were more common (trolley cases being more of a premium item mainly for business travellers), whereas the budget airline revolution has driven the market for a small trolley case each which makes a 10 minute walk, a short bus ride, a short Tube ride or a taxi (if you must) really no barrier. You walk further to a budget flight gate at Gatwick.

 

[Highlandspring]

For around a year after full Eurostar timetabled services began in May 1995, BR ran connecting trains from various places direct to Waterloo. This was intended as a temporary measure until Regional Eurostar operations started and you could only travel on them with a Eurostar through ticket to France or Belgium. One of my friends travelled from Edinburgh on an HST and was one of fewer than twenty passengers on board.

 

[ajdunlop]

I believe Regional Eurostar could still work with a simple metal detector scan at the origin station and passport checks done by boarder staff that board the trains at the tunnel and perform their check as it passes through. This sort of thing is done the world over for cross boarder trains.

Night Eurostar would be a bit more tricky as you wouldn’t want the passport check done in the middle of the night but might work from Scotland passing through the tunnel in the morning or trains starting in London in the evening and passing through France during the night.
The relaxation around the fire safety spec of trains would help make this cost less than when the original scheme was devised.

I was led to believe that the thing that killed off Night Eurostar and Regional was the delay in finishing HS1 around to north London for connections to the main lines. Was this the case or was it finances?