Eurostar

I have had to travel to Europe pretty regularly over the last few years or so.
The Eurostar has been a Godsend. I still remember the shocking few months when the Chunnel was closed after a blazing lorry was carried into the tunnel and eventually destroyed itself, other vehicles and seriously damaged the tunnel.
The return to cross-channel air travel came as a bad shock.

Now that the London terminal is to be moved from Waterloo to Kings Cross, for me it gets even better.

However, one thing that I have noticed over a number of years is the deterioration in standards of cleanliness, food and staff attitudes.

Despite a recent change of upholstery the interior of the carriages still generally look tired and over-used and the choice of a plain grey as the new upholstery colour certainly reinforces a certain Sovietique feel about the way the service is run.
The frequency with which I find that the toilets are either broken or are lacking in water, soap, or paper (and some times all three) points to a serious deficiency at management level.
Food is cliched and uninspiring despite some marketing guru's attempt to use lavish descriptive terms to describe, for instance, a relatively simple sandwich: it just doesn't work.

I don't know who came up with the design of their catering provision but Eurostar have definitely got it the wrong way round by supplying English quality food and French quality service because the catering staff are by and large all French - and it shows as serving with a smile and trying to keep down the queuing time does not seem to be one of their priorities. In fact you can see this very French approach to interpersonal relations as soon as you hand your passport to the French armed police at Waterloo station. Gruff or silent and much more interested in talking to their mates - very different from the very friendly outgoing, un-uniformed and un-armed British immigration officials on the other side. (What are the rules of engagement for French armed police on UK soil anyway?)
Why it was beyond the wit of the Eurostar planners to have a little competition amongst their caterers is beyond me. They could even have invited Pret a Manger to tender and we might have had almost perfect sandwiches with friendly outgoing disposition all in one - and they have a ready-made French name as well.
Trop complique!


TIP:- I regularly complain about these problems and quite often get a free travel voucher by way of compensation.