Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I am disappointed that Eurostar, very gradually, just seems to be losing interest in being a key international travel medium. Happening slowly over time, but in particular the recent merger with Thalys seems to have just left it as an outlying branch from an operation mainly focused on the Paris to Amsterdam route. The initial Eurostar passenger number projections have never been met to any extent, the trains have always seem under-employed, and a large part of the potential market, such as on-the-day day leisure returns is completely ignored - it's only two hours to Paris (or to London for Parisiennes).
The space at St Pancras seems, if anything, smaller and more cramped than what was available at Waterloo, where at least their accommodation was used in a useful manner rather than stupidities like Champagne Bars where nobody ever seems to be. There was no excuse for the experiences from Waterloo not being carried forward and improved at St Pancras. Unlike some, who are so eulogistic about what was done to the old station interior, I think they ruined it ...
The champagne bar is itself a massive waste of space and the upstairs part of the station at that end is barely used at all. Could an option be to rejig it a bit to move the arrivals facility up there, and thus have only departures in the area downstairs? That would mean the retail wouldn't need to be moved around, though I suppose another option would be to take out the retail on the Eurostar side only, keeping the other side, and to expand into that space, with some retail moving upstairs as stall style shops with seating, perhaps making a better food court than the cramped area around the departure board?
To gain more space you could extend the mezzanine over the central walkway between the shops. It wouldn't be quite as nice without the view upwards to the trainshed roof, but if lighting was designed well it wouldn't be awful either. And it'd not need to be the full length to get enough space for an arrivals facility or a stall-based food court.
As a further sort-of-related option, could a pre-registration facility be created for people to sign up their fingerprints for the EU scheme in advance in one of the retail units? Wouldn't suit everyone, but if already living or working in London popping in to do it to avoid queues on the day would be a good thing, a bit like the way Gatwick offer (or did offer) the option to check bags in the night before to make things easier/reduce queues for the early morning departures.
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