From the all-knowing Man in Seat 61:
Eurostar in 2023...
Eurostar report that demand for leisure travel is already back to 100% of its pre-pandemic level, whilst business travel has reached 80%-85%. However, Brexit border checks - an extra 15 seconds to stamp each non-EU traveller's passport - has reduced capacity at St Pancras by as much as 30%. As a result, Eurostar are running fewer trains compared to 2019 and they have limited the number of seats sold on some trains to avoid overloading check-in facilities at St Pancras - for example, on some peak departures only 550 seats are being sold on a 900-seat train. Overall, Eurostar say they are providing only 70% of the capacity they provided pre-pandemic. This means they're having to maximise yield from the seats they can sell (in plain English, higher fares) rather than continuing their original strategy of volume & growth.
Eurostar plan to increase the number of passport control lines from 7 to 9, and will convert part of the arrivals hall into additional check-in space. They plan to trial an 'online check-in' later this year, and to automate as much as possible of the new ETIAS (European visa) arrangements when they come in, probably now in 2024. They hope that these measures will restore capacity to what it was before the double disasters of the pandemic and Brexit. Until then, their direct services to Disneyland Paris and to Lyon, Avignon & Marseille will not operate, nor will their trains call at Ebbsfleet or Ashford.