Eurostar: Calls to sort upcoming passport checks

There are plans to bring in biometric border controls for the Eurostar at St Pancras in north London in October

Issues around new Eurostar post-Brexit passport checks must be resolved "as a matter of urgency" ahead of potential "chaos", London's mayor says.

There are plans to bring in biometric border controls at St Pancras International in London in October.

HS1, the owner and operator of the Eurostar line, said plans for the system were "inadequate" and could lead to long delays.

The government has been approached for comment.

The new system will require citizens from outside the EU or Schengen area to register before entering the zone.

It will also replace the stamping of passports for UK travellers, and will instead require passengers to enter personal information and details about their trip, as well as submitting fingerprint and facial biometric data.

According to London City Hall, 18.6 million people used the Eurostar last year, a rise of 22% on the previous 12 months, and a return to levels last seen in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.

HS1, in its evidence to the European Scrutiny Select Committee, pointed out that the need to register a non-EU passenger was expected to take at least an additional two minutes per passenger if carried out solely at the border.

Furthermore, only 24 entry/exit system kiosks had been allocated to St Pancras by the French government, despite modelling suggesting that almost 50 would be needed at peak times, HS1 said.

'Potentially huge queues'

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, said: "The success of the Eurostar is a vital part of London's and the UK's economic success - with St Pancras a gateway for huge numbers of tourists and businesspeople in the country.

"As it stands, these new post-Brexit checks will cause chaos at St Pancras, with cuts to services and potentially huge queues facing passengers at peak times. This is directly a result of Brexit, and it's not an issue ministers can now wash their hands of."

He said ministers needed to offer HS1 and Eurostar all the support needed to resolve these issues as a "matter of urgency".

The Liberal Democrats in the London Assembly warned if the changes lead to large queues and reduced capacity, then tourism could take a hit in the capital when it is trying to recover from the pandemic.

"Yet again we are seeing the disastrous impacts of Brexit on London's economy," Lib Dem economy spokesperson Hina Bokhari said.

John Dickie, chief executive of membership organisation BusinessLDN, said the government must "urgently find a solution that prevents these new checks causing lengthy delays in the run-up to Christmas".

Bernard Donoghue OBE, director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, urged "these bureaucratic obstacles" to be resolved, saying that anticipated delays "further undermine the UK's reputation as an attractive, accessible destination".

However, Keith Prince, City Hall Conservatives spokesman for transport, said London's Underground system had been "plagued by delays almost every day since Christmas" and Mr Khan needed to "focus on the problems in his own backyard or make way for someone who will".

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