I bought our tickets from London to Paris for an overnight stay 5 days ago, we're going June 11th. When I bought the tickets I saw nothing specific about our dates in June, only April and May, on the Eurostar website. Now tonight I saw that our return back to London on June 12th was a planned strike day based on a calendar on the https://en.oui.sncf/en/train/strike website. I'm really confused and worried that we won't be able to get back to London that day. But I also saw, I believe on that same website, something that said Eurostar trains to London were not affected. I know it's over a month away but I'm a little worried, can someone help. My understanding of the Eurostar website was they would refund our money if the train was cancelled but we'll also be out a hotel room and tickets for the Eiffel Tower and Louve, which I know aren't much but still.
Posted by
Chicago
8166 posts
I do not understand how you would be out a hotel room and trip to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre if you can cancel your train back to London on June 12 and get your money back because of a strike? Is the train ticket back to London part of the hotel and visit to the Louvre and the Eiffel tower?
Also there are plenty of ways back to London other than just the over-priced and hyped Eurostar if you need to get back in time to catch a flight back home to go back to work.
Posted by
Los Angeles
305 posts
I too am traveling on Eurostar on a strike day in May. If your train is cancelled they will rebook you on a different train. Keep this link handy as they seem to know several days before which trains they will be cancelling. https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/disruption/service-information
Posted by
OP
Atlanta, GA
380 posts
Jazz we would be out a hotel room and the attraction tickets if we can't be guaranteed our return journey on the 12th, we would just have to cancel the overnight all together. I don't want to go if we can't get back as we have our return flight to the States from Heathrow on the 14th. To my knowledge the only other ways for us to get back to London on the 12th if the trains are on strike is to fly or rent a car. If we had to do one of those we would be out quite a bit of money for 4 people to fly or rent a car back to London and it's not worth it. I've never had to deal with a transportation strike so I don't know what my other options are or really how it all works.
Larlock - Thank you for the link. I even installed the Eurostar app on my phone so that might help as well. Do they only cancel some trains each day, leaving others on the same day to that destination going?
Posted by
546 posts
Take heart, We just met some friends from England that came and returned on Eurostar. (We were in Paris) Even though their return was on a strike day their train ran from Paris to London on schedule.
Remember that the trains leaving England more than likely have English crews that need to return to England. So even if the French crews are not going to England your chances are very good of your train running.
Also what I keep hearing here in France is that most of the international trains are running.
And finally by June the entire mess may be over and things back to normal. I wouldn’t change anything yet just keep watching.
If the worst does happen just book a cheap flight to London. In either case I can’t see why you would be out anything on the Paris side.
Good Luck
Posted by
Chicago
8166 posts
ok I got a cost effective solution but it will take longer to get back but you can take the Flixbus or Eurolines bus to Brussels from Paris and then the train back to London.
Flixbus has 13 buses a day https://www.flixbus.com/
Eurolines has 5 buses a day https://www.eurolines.eu/
Or you can take either service from Paris to London
Posted by
Los Angeles
305 posts
Georgiatraveler,
They only cancel some trains. They say they are running at 80% on strike days. I have been watching that site since the first strike and my train has only been cancelled one time. But since there are several trains a day I have decided not to stress it and go with the fact that even if I have to go earlier or later I will make it to Paris on my appointed day. I have noticed that the early trains and the late trains are the worst (See that the 7:13 am train is already cancelled on this coming May 3rd and 4th). But usually if they cancel the 11 o'clock train they won't cancel the 12 o'clock train. But who knows if my theory on this will hold.
Good luck.
Laura