I'm trouble -making again
and would like to seek your help.
I'm delving into why Eurostar refuse to re-open Ebbsfleet (and Ashford) stations. They've asserted that its because the UK Border Force say they cannot provide the necessary staff for passport control there, unless they divert staff from St.P. Since whenever I used Ebbsfleet, there was only one guy checking passports, I considered that to be a load of bollocks. However further delving is throwing up some odd stuff.
So here are my questions for anyone who has boarded Eurostar at St. Pancras recently:
Can you confirm that *somebody* checked your passport, (or maybe there was an e-Gate) ?
If it was a human, did they appear to be Border Force or did they perhaps have the
logo of this company on their uniform?
Any other knowledge which would shed light on this would be gratefully received too. The goal is to restore Ebbsfleet Eurostar services!
Comments
It's important because the Eurostar CEO ( a French bod) told a UK Parliamentary Committee that the reason he could not re-open Ebbsfleet was the reason mentioned above. If UKBF are happily sub-contracting it to the French at St. P. he surely knows that, and has therefore lied to a Parliamentary Committee. Even Rupert Murdoch understood that you don't do that.
The most painful part of the trip was the UK border control when we got back which took about half hour to get through
Their intention is to maintain or even cut current service levels and fill the trains with "dedicated" passengers who, for whatever reason, are willing to pay a high price for their trip. They blame this on the need for baggage / passport checks at any station where trains pick up, the cramped conditions at St Pancras and the exorbitant access costs to HS1 and the channel tunnel.
Stopping at Ebbsfleet or Ashford simply introduces too many logistical and staffing problems which might detract from and / or delay the high-quality core service they wish to operate.
This is completely the opposite situation to that on many other high-speed lines (such as Barcelona - Madrid) where multiple companies are flooding the market with very cheap prices to gain market share!
I have gathered this impression by reading press releases to various railway magazines and newspaper articles. Don't think there's anything dishonest about it. It's just sh*t.
We don’t want everyone getting over excited.
I think I've probably read the same articles as you, and had gained a similar impression. However the reason for my sudden activity, and this thread, is that the Chair of the Transport Select Committee, Huw Merriman MP, asked Eurostar specifically to clarify why it was not re-opening Ebbsfleet and Ashford. The then CEO, Jacques Damas, responded in writing on 26 September, and you can read it here. You will find it full of the excuses you've already mentioned plus a few more besides, however if you read carefully you'll note that, with one exception, none of them relate specifically to the two stations, other than an implication that they cannot for various reasons run more trains than what they do now, and what they run now isn't enough (so re-opening the two stations would bring even more demand that they cannot fulfil)
And the exception? It is this: (my emphasis in bold)
"...Re-opening the intermediate stations (where demand and yields are much lower) would make things even worse as it would take away from London vital border police resources. The reality of traffic numbers is such that a police officer controls 5 to 10 times more passengers in our large terminals than in intermediate stations"
There we have it. For whatever reason, he is implying that the border police resources allocated to Eurostar are fixed. If he re-opened Ebbsfleet the BF, he implies, would say, "fine, we will have to transfer people from St.P to Ebbsfleet, and that will cause congestion at your main station, you OK with that"?
Now my problem with this is that the number of extra BF people needed at Ebbsfleet is minimal. In fact I never recall seeing more than one on duty at any one time. And the last outgoing train from Ebbsfleet was at or before 14.00. Job done, no late shift. So I found the apparent excuse from the BF preposterous.
Naturally my first step has been to submit a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office asking for clarification of BF staffing levels at Ebbsfleet during 2019 so we can get a clear idea of the actual numbers needed. And naturally the fuckers have tried to block my request on predictably shaky grounds. Well I have plenty of experience with that sort of thing, and an internal review (per FOI law) will now be requested.
Anyway, as you were.
I am not sure what to make of the involvement of a private contractor such as Mitie in these activities. I've read today another Gov. document which is an independent review of the Border Force commissioned by Patel herself. It makes clear that BF is understaffed and fails to recruit effectively. In that situation I suppose we'd rather have private contractors checking passports, than hellish queues. But I thought passport checking is supposed to be Really Important on the non-Schengen island, is it really Ok to sub-contract it?
Anyway in the meantime I've whacked in my FOI internal review request. I've expanded on the nature and extent of the public interest in the answer. However at the end I've also suggested a compromise whereby they give me the costs, rather than the headcounts, but at all three stations, in 2019. Maybe I'm going soft in my old pensionable age...
At the "British Border control", I just put my open passport face down. I don't remember the uniform of the person that was there to help.
Then on to French Border Control, where the passport stamping would have been quicker if the guy hadn't read a full newspaper article on his phone, in Le Monde, before stamping my passport. I suspect that he read an article between each passenger.
For this to happen, Eurostar would need some form of subsidy to make it worth their while.
I agree that pinning half the reason (point 2 of 2!) on British border forces is rather misleading.
But within the context of the whole letter, the implication is that in order to run a couple of trains per day from Ebbsfleet you need British Police, French Police, Baggage checkers, staff on the platform, staff to check tickets as well as staff to offer general support for passengers with problems. All these people would be much more efficiently and profitably deployed at St. Pancras!
It's crazy but potential travellers from Ebbsfleet can simply catch a Javelin into St Pancras and come out again. I doubt that many passengers are actually completely put off using Eurostar!
The real fight must be to somehow persuade the government that HS1 and the channel tunnel should operate for the economic benefit of everyone and not just handed to private companies to do with as they please. It's not really fair to expect a private company to have a social responsibility when their primary concern must be to their shareholders and employees!
Big presumptious comment. Don't forget Ashford too. Quite some costs to add, let alone time.
Ashford earlier this week.