Train Station Luggage Lockers.
 

With the tightening of security in the last year or so, can recent travellers please give me an update on the availability of luggage lockers in France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany.<BR>Are they still in use, or have they been sealed off to prevent bomb threats?<BR>I was in France a few years ago, when they were sealed due to security scares, and it was a real pain.<BR>Thanks.

Don't know about Switzerland, Austria or Germany, but the lockers at Paris Nord station worked fine about a month ago. You have to put your bag through a metal detector before you can put it in the locker so there is a bit of a dealy getting into the locker area, but otherwise, no problem.

Tony<BR><BR>Luggage lockers are still alive and well in Swiss train stations, no security to get to them, variety of sizes. I have only been to four or five train stations in Austria but all have had lockers. In France can only comment on Lyon train station, lockers were there and were being used. Lockers defintely available in Germany.

I was in France last week, and lockers at most stations are still closed. They are only available at a few very big stations where there are staff with scanners. It really is a pain for innocent travellers and is quite futile - I can't believe any terrorist organisation will be defeated in this way, and a bomb left elsewhere in a station would probably cause more damage than one left in a locker. Most other European countries, apart from Britain, have lockers as normal.

According to the Eurostar website there are left luggage facilities at all Eurostar stations in Paris.

Geoff Hamer remarks<BR>&gt;... a bomb left elsewhere in a station would probably cause more damage than one left in a locker. &lt;<BR> But a suitcase with 40 kg of plastique out in the open is more likely to be noticed than one in a locker.

If there are no luggage lockers, there will be more people milling around a railway station with luggage. By the time somebody notices that a bag is unattended, it could be too late. When I first went to Spain in the 1980s, there were no luggage lockers because of Basque terrorists: it didn't stop the terrorists; eventually, Spanish stations had lockers and are now much more civilised. The majority of terrorist attacks in Europe have used car bombs: they could be prevented by banning all cars from city centres, but that would inconvenience too many people, while closing luggage lockers doesn't inconvenience many people. France and Britain are, I think, the only countires with this stupid attitude.

Exactly Ira! Oh OK, a bomb in a locker will cause less damage than one out in the open. Not! Real unintelligent thinking. As if the train lockers aren't located in high traffic areas right next to the main concourses, snack machines, ticket counters. How soon so many forget the bomb left in Bologna Centrale in the summer of 1979 that devastated that train station and killed so many people. Remember that? And it was in a locker!

The bomb in Bologna station was left in the waiting room, not in a locker. Until recent years, Italian stations did not have lockers and all left luggage was manual. The lockers are a recent innovation and at Bologna are some distance away from the waiting room where the atrocity happened.

Tony,<BR><BR>My experience is not very recent, but after 911. Koln main station had just finished puttting in a brand new locker system that is automatted. You put your bag into a little bag elavator and way it goes. You get a locker ticket with a storage location on it, so that when you want your luggage you just put it in the machine and your luggage returns. I'm sure that is still in operation. Happy travels.<BR><BR>Greg

Seems to be a mute point. The fact remains the bomb exploded in the station period. It doesn't seem to matter if the lockers are a bit farther away as Geoff mentioned from a main area. It's all still a tragedy.

The tragedy at Bologna happened because a bomb was left in the waiting room. It had nothing to do with the availability or otherwise of left luggage lockers. Bologna, like most Italian stations, still has a manual left luggage office.

Thanks everyone for your input.<BR><BR>Special thanks to Lynn who gave me the information I was looking for. I take it Lynn, your experience is post 9/11. Perhaps if you are still logging in you could confirm this.<BR><BR>I use the trains a lot, and I like to store my luggage during the day whilst I stop off for some sightseeing or a lake cruise or the like.<BR><BR>Cheers,<BR>Tony.