The Eurotunnel

[miniman]

Just settling into a few glasses of vino having returned home from France via the tunnel. I think it's the last time I will use it. The transit time is very compelling but it's the rest of the experience that ruins it for me.

At Folkestone, the setup is such that getting onto the site is quite painless, and then you do the customs stuff once you're on route to boarding - meaning that people turning up early aren't holding you up. In Calais, it's queue after queue. Queue to check in. Queue to get to the first (empty) passport line. Queue to get to the next passport line. Queue to get into the carpark. Queue to get into the toilets. Queue to get a fecking bottle of water from WHSmiths.

I swear it's deliberate. You couldn't make it this bad accidentally.

I think the real problem stems from the ability for people to turn up and buy a ticket on the gate. We were booked on the 5:06 tonight. We turned up at 4, to find "15 minute delays" - not a problem. But once we were issued our boarding pass thing, it turns out we're now on the 6:06 because of "unforseen capacity problems". So essentially they know how many cars fit on a train, but they either sell more tickets assuming people will be late; allow people who haven't pre-booked to get ahead of those who have; or both. Probably the latter.

There's absolutely no information, all the staff are surly and unhelpful, and I'm yet to do a trip on time.

I get that a lot of the French would rather it wasn't there, but we built the damn thing so shouldn't we run it properly?

[miniman]

Roo said:

They were overloaded yesterday because of the striking ferry workers blocking Calais.

I think it's not beyond the wit of man to concoct an approach where people who have a ticket that they booked months previously are dealt with separately to those who turn up because the ferry is on strike.

Aside of that, it's the total lack of information or sign of any staff who give a st that I find most frustrating. Even at the final queue for boarding, the signs said "15 minute delay" - we were already an hour late at that point.

[miniman]

dcb said:

miniman said:

Just settling into a few glasses of vino having returned home from France via the tunnel. I think it's the last time I will use it. The transit time is very compelling but it's the rest of the experience that ruins it for me.

Oddly enough, when it's busy, like during the summer holidays, it is slow.

I've stopped going across the Channel from early July to early September.

Saved a fortune in tunnel costs too. It is usually < £100 anytime, but
for summer holiday, £200 + is possible.

My point is that given x trains per hour maximum capacity, and y vehicle spaces on those trains, it should be easy enough to determine absolute peak capacity, then build the surrounding infrastructure (roads, check-in booths, toilets etc) to cope. At Calais, even a short queue of traffic backs straight up onto the motorway.

I realise that's cloud cuckoo land - they will never spend the money on capacity that will rarely be needed - but it's frustrating nonetheless.

[miniman]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

The trouble is, they are selling drive up tickets.