Are Eurostar services definitely running?
Yes. The first train from Paris Gare du Nord arrived at St Pancras International 82 minutes behind schedule. The delay is because trains are being routed along the “classic” line, as the high-speed TGV Nord line is shut. Many other high-speed lines, including those linking Paris with Brussels, Amsterdam and the rest of northern France, are also using the old railway lines.
How is Eurostar contacting affected passengers?
Passengers will be contacted by email or SMS. Eurostar says: “We ask all travellers who can to postpone their trip and not to go to the station.”
My train has been cancelled, what are my options?
Eurostar passengers on a cancelled service can request a refund or switch trains, but beware that very few services have availability in the next 48 hours.
Can I book a flight instead?
Not unless you move very fast. All three Paris airports (Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais) will be closed from 6.30pm on Friday afternoon as a security precaution ahead of the opening ceremony – the last plane to land is expected to be the Edinburgh to Charles de Gaulle service, touching down at 5.10pm.
After this, an area of northern France approximately the size of Belgium will be closed for five hours to all flights, barring emergency and official government services. Normally the three Paris airports would handle as many as 350,000 passengers on a peak Friday summer day.
What about French domestic trains?
France’s national rail operator, SNCF, has advised passengers to postpone their trips and stay away from railway stations.
In Paris’s main stations of Montparnasse, Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est, operations were heavily disrupted and stations were extremely busy on Friday morning after trains were delayed or cancelled.