The bottleneck at London’s St Pancras International that has limited traffic since post-Brexit border rules came into effect might have a solution, according to a report issued by the station’s owner, HS1, which also owns the route from the station to the Channel Tunnel.
HS1’s report says it has found ways to increase the number of passengers it can handle per hour to 2,400 from the present 1,800 without major work by adding more security lanes and staff. The report also identifies longer-term options involving construction that could increase the capacity to 5,000 per hour. The plan in either case hinges on France providing more immigration officers at St Pancras.
Passengers go through airport-style security, French passport control and UK government departure checks before boarding trains heading through the tunnel to Europe, a much more complicated system than that in effect when the UK was part of the EU. As a result, the station’s ability to process outgoing passengers has dropped from 2,200 passengers an hour in 2019 to 1,500 in 2022.
Eurostar, which operates the cross-Channel trains, says the only reason there aren’t huge backups at the station is that it has reduced the number of trains, and that that has led to higher average fares. It has also meant that passengers are told to arrive at the station two hours ahead of departure instead of the previous 30 minutes.
