Brexit -- Travel Impacts April/May?

Don’t worry about it if you’re an American or Canadian, there are no changes to non-EU passport holders.

Strikes and/or industrial action in France can have an effect on you, but this has been true since the French Revolution. So, keep an eye out for whatever is currently happening. That’s been the issue with the Eurostar lately.

Does anyone in here have more concrete information

I doubt that, as we still don't know what will happen next week. The speaker has ruled out a 3rd vote on the WA, so the prime minister has requested an extension of the Article 50 period but it is still unclear if the European council will grant the extension. If nothing happens, UK will leave with no deal, which could result in increased queues at borders, especially at the NI-RoI border.

We are heading to England mid-May. I am concerned as well. My Google research, reading various financial and travel articles pretty much say what others have said - traveling from the US to the UK will not have a serious impact.

We have a wrinkle, though. We plan to travel to France from the UK to meet our grandson, who is finishing up his first year in college. He spent the year in Paris at Catholic University. We will travel to Loches to spend some time with his friends and do a little sightseeing, then head back to London. Our plan is to take the Eurostar. Fortunately, is sounds like both sides are working on the issue.

I don't think any of us have concrete information, since there isn't any yet.

I hope you have a wonderful trip! There's not much you can do at this point other then try not to worry and try to stay flexible.

"...just a ton of confusion and unknowns." My solution to that...don't read on-line. I don't. Not interested in the"absolute nightmare." If I am lucky, I'll be there in England or France sometime after mid-May, if not, then it will be June.

Who knows? After months of boring Brexit argy-bargy, it's suddenly got quite interesting. Thanks partly to the manoeuvres of those most opposed to leaving it now seems, ironically, that a proper no-deal departure next week (which was off the table) is now firmly back on it. So you might be visiting the UK during the early heady days of freedom from the EU menace. Or it might all go into extra time and you'll be there when nothing yet has changed, including the politicians still being all handbags at dawn.

Still unless you have a cunning plan, there's not much you can do about it at this stage. So I wouldn't worry and just go with the flow.

I return to the UK in three weeks. I am not worrying about Brexit at all. Why? Because no one has any idea what it going on and I have no control over any of it. I will deal with any issue that comes up at the time.

Since no one has a clue as to what the future holds, all the "experts' spew out doom and gloom because that's what the media likes.

Go have a good time.

How many more times do we have to say “Please don’t use the phrase CHUNNEL?” It’s irritating, as it hasn’t been called this for more than 20 years.

There have been delays /strikes on the French side this last week which is likely to continue into the summer.

No one knows what will happen about Brexit. It’s a farce.

If you want a plan B, then research how to get from Belgium or Netherlands to UK. Consider buses is train stations are going to continue to be nightmares. It means more travel and stops with kids, but perhaps you can plan an alternate route so you don't have to even consider trains to UK from France. More stops less uncertainty and stress. One thing if mature experienced travellers, totally different with young kids in tow.

Just go, enjoy, and don’t worry.

Chunnel

https://www.eurostar.com/us-en/travel-info/the-chunnel

If eurostar calls it 'chunnel', I think chastising us rebellious Colonials for using the term is unwarranted.

If eurostar calls it 'chunnel', I think chastising us rebellious Colonials for using the term is unwarranted.

But with all this talk about "living like the locals" then surely referring to something that hasn't been referred to in such a way for decades defeats the purpose ; )

They probably call it "chunnel" because they know Americans do, the same as some places offer "high" tea but it's really afternoon tea and Tower Bridge is often called London Bridge by "rebellious colonials".

From this side of the pond, the chunnel was discussed and followed during construction as an engineering feat. Once completed, people lost interest. So, 'chunnel' sticks in the brain. For Europeans it suddently became useful, therefore stayed relevant.
Has nothing to do with rebelliousness.

Just for argument, wouldn't the 'chunnel' be the Channel Tunnel rather than the (Eurostar) train that travels the tunnel? So if one is traveling via the Channel Tunnel (whether train or car), why can't they 'chunnel'? But, chunnel as a verb falls into the realm of Google as a verb. In casual speak, we can chunnel and google away. Yes, in advice, correct terms are better. Why not just use them rather than poke fun?

I don't think the Canadians are rebellious. I've oft wondered why the USA just doesn't take it over.

I guess "chunnel" annoys some people so I shan't use it.

Ok I have to ask. If it is the Channel Tunnel or Chunnel for short then what is the tunnel called? Because it is not the Eurostar, that is a train/ company name.

I take a train occasionally through the New River Gorge and Stretcherneck Tunnel the Train is called the Cardinal. But if you were asking me how I was getting from point A to point B across the mountains I would say through the Gorge.

So I suppose to be technically right you go from Paris to London on the Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel so if you ask how you getting to Paris. You can reply on the Eurostar or through the Chunnel.

Or whatever you are calling the Tunnel itself

(And any map I can find if it names the Tunnel calls it the Channel Tunnel which Chunnel has always been slang or shorthand for. Like LA is for Los Angeles.

So I really do want to know. If it is not the Channel Tunnel then what is it called and where is it called it because I can’t find any other name

@BMWVBG, I don't think we are rebellious in general either, but we have had our moments ;-) Doesn't mean I can't shed some light on continental perspective (we watch a lot of the same media after all) and stick up for our neighbours :-)
@Douglas, I think Channel Tunnel is it.

To the OP: As the old song advises "Don't worry, be happy". I doubt what ever happens will directly affect you other than a French rail strike and those seem to happen every time there's a holiday or vacation.

As for unrest in the UK, I doubt that the omnishamble that is Brexit right now would motivate any riots. More like gallows humor and politician twats who mobilize a march and then fail to show up for most of it. Come enjoy France and UK. Your kids will love it.

Chunnel is a media created amalgamation of Channel Tunnel, much like Brexit...grrrr or staycation...grrrr. The tunnel is actually called the Channel Tunnel, someone thought it would be amusing to refer to it as the Chunnel (it wasn't) and it stuck. The train using the tunnel is the Eurostar and now when people refer to crossing the Channel using the train they refer to the Eurostar not the Chunnel.

Chunnel - defunct
Eurostar - the universally accepted reference to travelling by train via the Channel Tunnel

"I've oft wondered why the US just doesn't take it over."

What is the antecedent? Canada? But they tried in 1812 and 1813, didn't they? Each time the US met with failure, be it undertaken by militia or Regulars. The result was the same...defeat.

If we take our car to France, we either take the ferry or the tunnel. The word channel is superfluous, and in the U. K. the Channel Tunnel is really the only one worthy of mention, so we just say tunnel.

Fred

I've heard the War of 1812 called the most misunderstood war. The Americans lost but are convinced they won. Canada didn't exist but they're convinced they won. And the British (who did actually win), have entirely forgotten about it being much more interested in Waterloo.

Mike, I think you must have edited your post.....<> or I would have replied differently. You really wouldn't want us. I'll leave it at that.

The Eurostar is the passenger train, Le Shuttle is the train that transports vehicles, so there is not just one type of train that uses the Channel Tunnel, hence sometimes the need for clarification of what type of train to take.

Maria, noted.

I like to think the US won a "diplomatic victory" with the Treaty of Ghent.

I just finished reading a biography of Grant, and I hadn't known this, but the United States lobbied hard to annex Canada as part of reparations after the U.S. Civil War. But Britain wasn't letting go! The Treaty of Washington was finally signed in 1871.

This is not directly a Brexit issue, but since the OP mentioned their plan to cross the English Channel by train, I wanted to note that the Washington Post reports that Eurostar users are advised not to rely on it until April due to strikes in France. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/eurostar-passengers-told-to-avoid-travel-until-april/2019/03/21/65bce998-4be3-11e9-8cfc-2c5d0999c21e_story.html?utm_term=.d2645b42788c

True, it's misunderstood, the last thing the British wanted seeing the big politics from their view was to take on the US when they were at war with Napoleon.

No British reinforcements reach Canada until after April 1814, ie when Napoleon abdicated., so Wellington's veterans victorious against les francais in Spain were sent over, only to be shot up grievously in Jan 1815 outside of New Orleans.

Keep in mind that regardless of the reasons, justified, valid, or not, it was the US that declared war on Britain, however one may interpret that act.

The US did not win any "diplomatic victory" with the Treaty of Ghent, signed on a "status quo ante-bellum" basis in Dec 1814, both sides wanted simply to get out of the conflict, the US because the capital had been burned and the total number of battlefield defeats (some decisive victories too).

Of course, the British troops earmarked for taking New Orleans could not be informed and called back even though the war was formerly over.

Brexit -- Travel Impacts April/May?

And now the War of 1812 is the center of discussion...??

as Mr. Spock would say 'fascinating', on how that came to be

Yeah, Big Mike, you did edit your post about "oft" thinking the USA should have taken over Canada. Such an unfriendly thought. No wonder you removed it from your post. We await your next thought.

CNN news flash

Here are the details of the Brexit agreement
EU leaders have come up with a two-part plan designed to avoid Britain crashing out without a deal on March 29.
According to the final text of the deal, leaders agreed to delay the Brexit process until May 22, if Theresa May can secure approval to the Withdrawal Agreement in the UK Parliament next week.
If May's deal fails, the UK's membership of the EU will be extended unconditionally until April 12, by which point the EU Council "expects the United Kingdom to indicate a way forward".

Still nothing definitive but narrowing the time frame on the 'when' ( maybe?)

PS--Why does the "Twilight Zone" theme music keep going through my head?