Chunnel Train Arrangements
 

Can anyone help with Chunnel arrangements? I arrive in London, May 2nd , stay for a week and then following suggestions on this Board, will go to Edinburgh first for 5 nights, then to York for 6 nights and train back to London for the Chunnel. Will I be able to make connections between York and the Chunnel for the same day? Can I make my train arrangements on line? Is this too much time in each city? I am hoping to take day trips from each town. Many thanks for all the help. Johanna

Will I be able to make connections between York and the Chunnel for the same day? Yes
Can I make my train arrangements on line? YEs
Is this too much time in each city? No, especially if doing day trips. I would move elsewhere from York though, maybe 3 nights there and 3 nights somewhere else.

You should be booking the Chunnel tickets NOW or you could pay literally hundreds of bucks more by just waiting to London

this is due to the Byzantine pricing structure - lots of cheap rates but not many tickets available at that on these increasingly popular often at capacity trains (esp to Paris)

My advise is always to check prices in $ and in British pounds at www.eurostar.com for prices in pounds and you can pick up tickets in London or have them mailed to you in U.S. (i assume) - often you will get the best fares thru that but also be sure to check RailEurope in U.S. Though RE is often a whipping boy on Fodor's in Chunnel tickets they can be lower sometimes - there seems very little correlation between prices and availability on the two sights for the same tickets. so check www.raileurope.com as well - actually for any RE product i always advise calling Byron at BETS; www.budgeteuropetravel.com 800-441-2387 as he is a Eurostar expert and is someone you can talk to about the many different fares. If you are thinking of a BritRail pass, which you may for that type of UK rail travel then you can get a passholder fare on the Eurostar and these can be the best fares if going one way (or even return though return Leisure fares are often better than two one-way passholder fares. But one way Passholder fares (for anyone with a railpass valid in UK or France or Benelux, depending on whether going to Brussels or Paris) start at $87 one way and this fare actually can be changed up until the time of the train in London without penalty (but subject to passholder space being available) - for return fares look at the Leisure fares that, in $ start at $160 return - but pass fares and Leisure fares have several higher levels so when the alloted seats in one category are gone you try a bit more expensive one.
Anyway early bird gets a big fat worm often when booking Eurostar. Just show up and you may have to pay fullfare of about $300 often one way!

WOW! Thanks Nona1 and PalenQ for your quick replies.
I was just working on google and see that I can go from
London King'sCross one way non-stop to Edinburgh-Waverly at 11am for about $80USD;then on Wed May 14th go to York at 11 am NS for about $20 USD and then
from York to STPancras station on May 19th at 8:00 am, arriving at 10:11 am and I can connect an 11 am Chunnel ticket to Paris. Now, I just have to figure out how to purchase all of these tickets and have reservations. I checked Rail Europe but doesn't seem to go to the train stations I need, or I didn't know how to input the correct info. I will call the number you mentioned. Perhaps, the tickets could be sent to my London hotel.
Nona1: Should I stay longer in Edinburgh than York and take day trips to Glasglow and other surrounding
areas? Since traveling alone, I don't want to change hotels so frequently. Is there not enough to see in YORK and surrounding areas? Thanks again!! Really appreciate all the help. Trying to get hotels near the train stations in York and Edinburg. Johanna

Eurostar offer special prices for journeys between some U.K. stations and European destinations.

For a journey between York and Paris in May, I have just been quoted a price of £54. That is standard class, non-changeable and for a journey leaving York at 10.29 arriving Paris 17.26.

Interestingly, each leg of the journey takes about the same length of time, and you have 1 hour 22 minutes to get from Kings Cross to St Pancras International. The two stations are next door.

Looks like a good deal to me.

<<then from York to St. Pancras station on May 19th at 8:00 am, arriving at 10:11 am and I can connect to an 11 am Chunnel ticket to Paris.>>

You might want to leave more time between trains. UK trains are notoriously late and the cut-off for check-in for the Eurostar is 30 minutes before departure. I wouldn't be comfortable giving myself only 19 minutes to get to the Eurostar area. And that's 19 minutes only if the train is on time!

HI Chartley; I am just realizing that the train stations are next to each other. I did not know that one could go directly from York to Paris without going back to London. I guess I will have to research this a little more.
I figured it would take me a while to change trains from one station to another,,walking with luggage. I appreciate all your help. Thanks for the input. How did you book your ticket on the Chunnel from York to Paris?

Many thanks!

Johanna

You do still have to go via London, but it is just a short walk from one station to the other.

I have not booked a journey for myself, just looked up the possibilities on the website at www.eurostar.com. You can book your journey online with a credit card, and then collect your ticket at the station before the journey, using the same credit card.

I could not find this specifically mentioned on the website, but possibly if you book a through journey, you will be allowed on a later Eurostar if your train from York is delayed.

Both these lines are very busy, so you need to book early to get low prices.

Thank you Chartley and Louie_Ll: Very good advice! I am spending the day trying to book my hotels in York and Edinburgh and then I will make the train tickets (in case they can't be changed.) I can take earlier trains from York that are non-stop. Glad to know that one needs to arrive 30 min earlier for the Eurostar. Thanks for all of the terrific information! Johanna

I would doubt IME that you can take a later Eurostar train if you miss your connection from York - at least on cheaper tickets that are non-changeable

But maybe there is some scheme that would allow that - i would be interested to know

In any case since there are two trains/hr York-London just schedule an appropriate amount of time for trains to be late (in U.K. at least 2 hrs IME - trains are endemically late or even can be cancelled (in which case if you have an online discounted ticket that is non changeable i don't know what happens - say the next trains are sold out? So leave lots of fudge time IMO

And be sure to get your British train tickets early too. For another considerable saving of money.

A recent thread recommends this site for buying UK train tickets: www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com/

The disparity in advance online ticket prices vs walk up in Britain is even greater than the Eurostar

For example recently i went from London to Manchester on a BritRail pass and on the train they said (warning folks with the train-specific discounted tickets to be sure they were on the specific train their ticket was valid on and only valid on - that the one way fare they'd have to pay if on the wrong train would be 133 pounds one way - 2nd class - rather incredible or about $260 one way - yet at www.nationalrail.co.uk you could probably book that ticket in advance for perhaps 20-30 pounds.

<<< this is due to the Byzantine pricing structure >>>

you mean the same one that the airlines use - the earlier you book, the cheaper it is?

I'm trying to figure out how to get from Paris to Cambridge. I tried the Eurostar and Raileurope web sites, and it didn't really give me the information. I imagine I book each leg separately....

Yes

www.nationalrail.co.uk is best for schedules and fares Cambridge to London - take a train to Kings Cross where St Pancras and Eurostar is next door - loads of trains Cambridge to London in an hour or so

either www.eurostar.com for fares and ticketing in pounds or investigate as well U.S. sources i mention above - always compare IME and one can often be cheaper than the other - esp with the increasing value of the pound.

So, given that the trains are always late, it still seems realistic to take the Eurostar from Paris in the morning and arrive in Cambridge early afternoon. Or should we spend the night in London the evening before?

Given Cambridge is part of London's commuter belt, you don't buy the London to Cambridge ticket in advance as you don't save any money

BUT why do you say Eurostar trains are always late?

jagjag, one person states that trains are "notoriously late", from which you have concluded that they are "always late". The on-time statistics are available online. I have not looked at them recently, but I would guess that 85% plus of trains arrive on time. So maybe, one in six is late, but often that lateness is 15 or 20 minutes.

I would see no need to stay in London overnight because of potential train delays.

Just curious..........where did the slang name for the Eurostar train that travels through the English Channel Tunnel originate?

Chunnel seems to be a word used more by Americans than by the British.

Where it is used, it refers to the tunnel itself, not the Eurostar trains that are one of the users of the tunnel. The main users of the Channel Tunnel are the shuttles travelling between Folkestone and Calais which carry road vehicles. A quite different experience.

My memory is that "chunnel" was invented by British headline writers in the early 1990s.

It never took off, and is now really used only by tourists trying to show off their (inaccurate) local knowledge, though journalists still have it as one of those words (like 'snub') that no-one uses, but save space and are widely understood.

I'm told British tourists in the US talking about somewhere called Frisco are a rough parallel.

I think Time Magazine coined the word. It never caught on in Europe or among Americans who really travel.

Actually, I found this in an article about the Oxford dictionary:

<b> 'Chunnel' (which dates from 1928!) is still occasionally encountered, but is used less now that the Tunnel is a reality.</b>

One time when this anal British reaction to the use of the word Chunnel came up someone found zillions of Chunnel references still being used in English media

what the hell difference does it make

anal yes

Sorry, I am one of those tourists , &quot;who does travel a lot&quot; who used the word Chunnel. To PalenQ, I want to thank you for Byron's number. He has made my Eurostar reservations (one-way to Paris first class for $164USD). I am going on the 12:30. I will take the 8:30 am from York to arrive by 12:00 at the Eurostar checkin. He was also able to purchase for me an 8 day British Rail Pass that I can use for Cardiff, York Edinburgh and Glasglow. It was very helpful. For example, if one travels to an from say Oxford or Cardiff or York and arrives before midnight, this counts as one day of travel. I am looking forward to taking several day trips. Having Byron take care of the train portion of my trip has been extremely helpful and time-saving!!! Thanks so much. Johanna

Johanna thanks for the thanks but the word Chunnel is officially banned on Fodor's due to concerns for the sensabilities, if not sensitivities, of Brits

I've taken first class on the Chunnel trains a few times and there is a vast difference in seat sizes and they serve a great meal and IME keep bringing out the booze!

'Chunnel' (which dates from 1928!) is still occasionally encountered, but is used less now that the Tunnel is a reality.

this from the Oxford dictionary sourcing and it originated in good ole England not the U.S.

Chunnel - get over it

Given the number of posts from yanks absolutely desperate to blend in, I would have thought you'd all have avoided 'Chunnel' like the plague....

If you really want to stand out, (and don't want to do the whole photographers gilet and fanny pack business), you might want to just periodically plonk 'the' in front of Eurostar, use 'Brit Air' (instead of 'British Airways', 'Virgin Airways' (instead of Virgin Atlantic), and (my personal favourite) 'Stonehinge'.

&lt;&lt;&lt; and (my personal favourite) 'Stonehinge'. &gt;&gt;&gt;

Don't you mean Stonehedge?

BTW Britair is a genuine airline

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brit_Air

how about 'take a eurostar train'?

or is it in proper England English 'take eurostar train'

Take the Eurostar

well is there only one or 'the' Eurostar train a day?

&quot;a&quot; signifies more than one train

Take the Eurostar

Take a Eurostar train

Announcement at St Pancras

&quot;Eurostar train 9341 to Paris is now ready for loading at platform 1&quot;

No &quot;the&quot; nor &quot;a&quot;

I'm gonna take a Eurostar train to Paris - to reach the Eurostar i must go to St Pancras Station - Eurostar train 9324 is the one i'm taking thru the CHUNNEL

In the technology sector, a chunnel refers to the large air duct that expunges approximately 1,000,000 cubic feet of supercooled air per minute (more or less) onto the area in which you are trying to work.

Usually found above cubes or in data centres above the KVM switches that attach to the monitors and keyboards, thusly making the affected technician shiver so much that he mis-types commands and destroys critical data.

goldwynn

thanks for documenting that the word Chunnel is an authentic word in its own right and not some cute combo

Not withstanding the fact that it doesn't actually mean a rail tunnel under the sea, then......

&lt;Not withstanding the fact that it doesn't actually mean a rail tunnel under the sea, then&gt;

no and i've been scraping my head trying to come up with a cute link between the two but cannot - tante pis!