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Comment by sschueller | Hacker News Reader

A lot of European countries do not permit continued use of rail infrastructure while being serviced as it can be quite dangerous. [1]

Switzerland is an exception to this but it results in extremely complex infrastructure projects with of course a much higher cost and more accidents. However having the infrastructure available in many cases prevents overall economic losses due to less trains etc.

[1] https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/unfaelle-mit-bauzuegen-gleis...

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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.

Nothing to do with Brexit, same thing happened before. It's because the UK wasn't in Schengen and the channel tunnel regulations require security (which is a waste of time, but it's because the tunnel was inaugurated when the IRA bombing campaign was in full flow)

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'.

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.

Right, from this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/world/europe/eurostar-bre...

The main difference is that pre-2021 UK travellers simply had to show travel documents whereas now they have to get them stamped.

On the surface, it isn't clear to me why that makes much of a difference in service time, but the CEO of Eurostar pointed a finger to these changes in January: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64390979, claiming their trains carry 30% fewer passengers due to station bottlenecks.

And yes, they claim the EES checks should help speed this bottleneck.

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.

I am not aware that customs controls are made in the passport area, at least not between London and Paris. It is done at the exit of the terminal, in a non blocking way like in UK airports (and always was, they were already looking for illegal products before Brexit).

Nonsense.

"However, it must be taken into account that in most European countries routes are simply closed as soon as construction begins. This is not possible in Switzerland because of the busy rail network. That's why operations in Switzerland continue during construction and renovation work - which poses more risks."

https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/unfaelle-mit-bauzuegen-gleis...

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