STP-BRU Eurostar – Standard

Operator: Eurostar

Headcode: 9I42

Route:    STP-BRU

Class:    Standard

Seat:     C8 S14

Date:     Monday 7^th October 2024

Less than four weeks after my quick trip to Ireland (read those posts here, here, here and here), I was heading back down to London ready to start another trip. This time I wasn’t heading for Ireland via Heathrow, but for Germany via St Pancras, a journey I’d be completing by just two international train services. My ultimate destination was Düsseldorf, but for the first leg of the trip was from St Pancras to Brussels, travelling with Eurostar in standard class.

Leaving Peterborough to head to London late morning, I arrived at St Pancras around 1215, however found that I couldn’t check in for my 1503 departure until 1330. This in itself wouldn’t be an issue, however Eurostar also advise to ensure you arrive at St Pancras at least 75 minutes before departure, so in this case 1349, leaving just a 19 minute window from when check-in opens until the theoretical deadline for checking in. Whilst I believe check-in remains open after this time, it does seem a bit odd that there is such a short window that Eurostar ‘want’ you there.

With some time to spare before I could check-in, I headed to grab some lunch at Yo! Sushi, a decision that made me feel that I might need to remortgage to recover from, before making my way to St Pancras’ mezzanine floor and finding a bench near the buffer stops of the Eurostar platforms. Heading back down to the undercroft around 1320, check-in for my service had opened and so I was able to begin to make myself through the process. On this occasion both security and passport control were really efficient, with it only taking eight minutes from me joining the queue to reaching the departure lounge.

After an hour of chilling in the departure lounge with my headphones on and doomscrolling through Tiktok, boarding stared around 25 minutes before departure and although it initially took me a few minutes to get through the chaos and to the bottom of the travelator, it wasn’t long until I was stepping onboard. Unfortunately, my duck of missing out on one of Eurostar’s original class 373s continued, as a class 374 was waiting to operate the service to Brussels. I was in coach 8, in the middle of the train along with one half of the café bar (which straddles coaches 8 and 9), with seat 14 my spot for the journey to Belgium.

Seat 14 is a rear facing window seat at a table of four and once boarding was complete I was pleased to find no-one sat opposite me, giving me a bit more legroom for the two-hour journey. Each pair of seats has both a standard UK socket and a European socket, and these are located under the seats in the centre of each pair. We departed at 1503, 1 minute early, and as we passed by the Churchyard Cement Works which sit in the triangle created by the Midland Mainline, North London Line and High-Speed 1, I was able to see Freightliner’s 66590 delivering aggregates that had originated from one of the Mendip quarries.

Two years after Eurostar had initially indicated they may restart services calling at Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International, this still hasn’t happened and so my Brussels services, as with all others, was non-stop to Europe. After the brief glimpse of Stratford International between the twin London tunnels, we emerged into the daylight in south-east Essex for a while, following the C2C line to Tilbury, before diving into a tunnel again to cross under the Thames. Ebbsfleet International passed by shortly after and we were soon zooming through Ashford International on the viaduct, with the depot housing Southeastern’s Javelin’s below us.

Reaching the approach to the Channel Tunnel around 30 minutes after leaving London, we slowed down to the reduced speed limit through the tunnel, passing between the Eurotunnel terminal and Dollands Moor freight yard before entering the eastern bore of the 50km long tunnel. With the reduced speed and obvious darkness out of the windows, the tunnel crossing is noticeable, however after a couple of journeys with Eurostar it does become somewhat a non-event. Just under an hour after our departure from St Pancras, we emerged from the Channel Tunnel into the French countryside, passing both the Eurotunnel terminal at Coquelles and the Frethun freight yard before leaving Calais’ suburbs behind.

The first stop for this service, and the majority of Eurostar services to Brussels, is Lille Europe, an underground dungeon like station built to serve the LGV Nord high-speed line. Just before Lille the onboard staff had made an announcement advising that one of the onward connections from Brussels to Germany had been cancelled. After a brief moment of panic that it was my Eurostar service, it actually turned out to be the DB service an hour before, and so I was able to sit back and relax for the remaining half an hour or so of the journey.

Just outside Lille there is a railway depot and yard either side of the mainline, and whilst on most occasions I’ve passed through these have been fairly empty, I was pleased to see a couple of stabled TGVs and a freight loco parked up as we passed through. The final stretch of the journey through Belgium to the outskirts of Brussels is fairly uneventful apart from passing the wonderfully named town of Silly, and we were soon threading our way through the maze of tracks into Bruxelles-Midi station. Our one minute early start from St Pancras had turned into a three minute delay as we arrived at 1807, however with over an hour until my connection, I wasn’t too rushed as we trudged past the closed mid-platform exit to the main exit at the front of the train.

As with the majority of my previous journeys with them, this journey with Eurostar was pleasant and efficient and a great way to start a trip. Getting through all the formalities at St Pancras so quickly really surprised me and every member of staff I interacted with was friendly and helpful. The seats in standard class are pretty comfortable, although nothing special, and the table support taking up some leg room is a slightly poor design aspect. However, overall the journey was great and being able to arrive into the centre of Brussels, walk out the station like I’d arrived from Bruges and head straight across to a restaurant, certainly beats the hassle of flying.

Lounge              0*

Seat/Facilities     3*

Food                3*

Service             5*

Punctuality         5*

Overall Rating      16/25 (read about my rating system here!)