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Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

independent.co.uk

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Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#21

Post by oh_sigh »

piepiepie wrote: post #8
vavooom wrote: post #3

"Refurbishment of Centraal station in the Dutch capital is responsible for the closure." Seems like they just won't be able to handle the capacity of too many visitors at once with the construction. Hopefully will help set the station up for continued success in the future!

Because Great Britain is not part of the Schengen customs zone, customs checks are required before boarding the train (this is the only train at the station with such checks). Due to the renovation, the part of the station where passport and baggage checks by customs officers were performed is to close down && turns out there's not enough space at the station to house temporary border checks, so... no train.

Why do custom checks happen in NL on the ground, and not on-train? The train still goes through Belgium(at least), where no customs checks would be required

Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#22

Post by martinald »

jpatt wrote: post #13
JoeSpaghettio wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isnt actually a brexit thing. There always was passport controls as the UK was never part of Schengen.

I am just echoing the article: There will not be sufficient space to handle London-bound passengers at the station, given the more intensive post-Brexit formalities. Not sure about the space intensity of pre- vs post-Brexit controls to fact-check the article.

It's total nonsense. These trains are running now with the same amount of space with no issues - it's only 4 trains a day, with the closest one being 2 hours apart. You can easily check a trains worth of people in 2 hours, brexit or no brexit (and I am sure eurostar would have changed the timings if in some crazy world it did require more than that).

What the article should say is 'given the requirement to do full passport and security checks'.

Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#23

Post by capableweb »

oh_sigh wrote: post #21
piepiepie wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Great Britain is not part of the Schengen customs zone, customs checks are required before boarding the train (this is the only train at the station with such checks). Due to the renovation, the part of the station where passport and baggage checks by customs officers were performed is to close down && turns out there's not enough space at the station to house temporary border checks, so... no train.

Why do custom checks happen in NL on the ground, and not on-train? The train still goes through Belgium(at least), where no customs checks would be required

Where on the train would you have place to perform this exactly?

Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#24

Post by willsmith72 »

oh_sigh wrote: post #21
piepiepie wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Great Britain is not part of the Schengen customs zone, customs checks are required before boarding the train (this is the only train at the station with such checks). Due to the renovation, the part of the station where passport and baggage checks by customs officers were performed is to close down && turns out there's not enough space at the station to house temporary border checks, so... no train.

Why do custom checks happen in NL on the ground, and not on-train? The train still goes through Belgium(at least), where no customs checks would be required

international customs checks on the train you mean? where do they do that?

if i'm getting you correctly, it sounds logistically WAY harder. authorities on every train for a start, then not missing anyone, then when someone shouldn't be allowed to pass customs they're already on the train so you can't kick them off, etc.

Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#25

Post by nyreed »

jpatt wrote: post #13
JoeSpaghettio wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isnt actually a brexit thing. There always was passport controls as the UK was never part of Schengen.

I am just echoing the article: There will not be sufficient space to handle London-bound passengers at the station, given the more intensive post-Brexit formalities. Not sure about the space intensity of pre- vs post-Brexit controls to fact-check the article.

The only appreciable difference I see a need for a border guard to physically inspect and stamp passports, which I suspect slows things down. I guess EITAS checks in the future too.

Once EES comes into effect the stamps may not be necessary anyway, but much like fusion, it's perpetually 6 months away.

Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#26

Post by jakubadamw »

JoeSpaghettio wrote: post #10
jpatt wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The line itself isn't being serviced, it is the station. UK-bound lines take up excessive space due to Brexit-related security controls, so there isn't enough space for both the security and the construction areas. They're still running the line from London to Amsterdam, which is why the line is still running and why the trains have to deadhead back.

That isnt actually a brexit thing. There always was passport controls as the UK was never part of Schengen.

The UK was never part of Schengen, but it was part of the single market. So while passport/ID controls have always been performed on the UK border crossings with other EU countries, customs controls had not – until Brexit.

Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#27

Post by [deleted] »

capableweb wrote: post #23
oh_sigh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do custom checks happen in NL on the ground, and not on-train? The train still goes through Belgium(at least), where no customs checks would be required

Where on the train would you have place to perform this exactly?

[deleted]

Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#28

Post by jochem9 »

vavooom wrote: post #3

"Refurbishment of Centraal station in the Dutch capital is responsible for the closure." Seems like they just won't be able to handle the capacity of too many visitors at once with the construction. Hopefully will help set the station up for continued success in the future!

Part of the renovation is increasing the capacity of the Eurostar terminal. From 250 to 600 (a Eurostar train has a capacity of ~800, but the train is rarely full at Amsterdam, as passengers also board at other train stations).

Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#29

Post by zilti »

willsmith72 wrote: post #24
oh_sigh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do custom checks happen in NL on the ground, and not on-train? The train still goes through Belgium(at least), where no customs checks would be required

international customs checks on the train you mean? where do they do that? if i'm getting you correctly, it sounds logistically WAY harder. authorities on every train for a start, then not missing anyone, then when someone shouldn't be allowed to pass customs they're already on the train so you can't kick them off, etc.

They do that everywhere else for international trains

Re: Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

#30

Post by cycomanic »

willsmith72 wrote: post #24
oh_sigh wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do custom checks happen in NL on the ground, and not on-train? The train still goes through Belgium(at least), where no customs checks would be required

international customs checks on the train you mean? where do they do that? if i'm getting you correctly, it sounds logistically WAY harder. authorities on every train for a start, then not missing anyone, then when someone shouldn't be allowed to pass customs they're already on the train so you can't kick them off, etc.

That's what they used to do before Schengen. I remember doing interrail when I was young and customs officers coming through the trains checking passports.
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