Eurostar

redjeepǃ

Does anybody know if, when you book ahead with Eurostar, your bike is absolutely 100% guaranteed to travel back on the same train as you ?

I'm planning a London to Paris this September, but as I'm flying out of Gatwick (with my bike) the same day I'm coming back from Paris to St Pancras via Eurostar, it's critical that we travel on the same train.

Their webpage says that your bike travels on the same train, but I've heard a few horror stories and can't get through to them on the phone to ask.

tomisitt

I've done the trip half a dozen times and my bike has always been on the same train, but I'm guessing that they can't absolutely 100% guarantee it.

sbesley

Traveled twice with them.

Second time, in May we had to wait 2 hours on our arrival in London for our bikes - a real pain in the a...

rpherts

I have done it twice (both ways) and both times the bike was on the same train, and was waiting when I got to the pickup point. They say they 'guarantee' it will be on the same train if you turn up an hour or more before departure, but the 'guarantee' might be made meaningless by small print (i.e. we'll say sorry if it isn't on the train).

Depends on load, I suppose. I'd hazard a guess that the day after the Marmotte would be less 'guaranteed' than another day.

Still a massive pain in the arse though. Booking separately because their systems are not integrated, paying for transport, not being completely sure if the bike will be there (and possibly missing an onward connection), etc. Ugh.

rolf_f

Absolutely not guaranteed to go on the same train as you. Maybe if you box it but we had an overnight in Paris before a midday train back to London and initially they weren't even guaranteeing the bikes to beat that!
I think when we were there they had 60 plus bikes to process on Sunday evening (and no Marmotte on!) and two unboxed bikes per train. We tried to box ours but struggled with pedal removal and even the one that did manage to get his bike in the box couldn't get the wheels in as well so they went in another box. We got locked out of the building whilst we were trying to box the bikes as well with all our stuff inside. Think the blokes running the depot went off for an hour fag break. Shambles....... Might be quicker to strap the bike to your back and swim across.