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There are dozens of high speed train lines in the EU, but as far as I know the Eurostar train is the only one which requires passengers to go through an X-ray machine to board the train. One may argue that the Channel Tunnel is the rationale for the extra checks, but aren't there dozens of other train tunnels around Europe?

References to authoritative sources are appreciated.

JonathanReez
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    Do any of the other tunnels cross a non-Schengen border? – cpast Jul 29 '18 at 01:38
  • @cpast no, however I'm talking about security checks rather than immigration checks – JonathanReez Jul 29 '18 at 01:42
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    Are they particularly heightened compared to AVE trains in Spain? Eurostar has a metal detector in addition to the x-ray machine for bags, while AVE just has the bag scan, but the situation is fairly similar overall. – Zach Lipton Jul 29 '18 at 01:43
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    @ZachLipton not sure about AVE but TGV trains leaving from the same station as the Eurostar don't have any extra checks – JonathanReez Jul 29 '18 at 01:47
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    If I may speculate, a long tunnel (which would make an explosion in the middle of it more disatrous) plus being a well-known high-prestige target. – DJClayworth Jul 29 '18 at 02:45
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    @DJClayworth, but that doesn't really make sense as cars travelling in Shuttles through the same tunnel do not get similar scans. – Mark Perryman Jul 29 '18 at 08:12
  • Thalys now gets half-hearted bag scans at Gare du Nord (half-hearted because sometimes they let some or all passengers bypass the machines and you have no checks boarding at other stations like Brussels, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, etc.) so international trains leaving at the same station than Eurostars do get some security measures. – Relaxed Jul 29 '18 at 09:08
  • I don't have a source at hand but officially, it's really due to the tunnel. There aren't many comparable tunnels in Europe in terms for depth, length and general difficulty of access (the new Gotthard base tunnel could be a reasonable comparison point?) The real hypocrisy is the way the Shuttles are handled. – Relaxed Jul 29 '18 at 09:11
  • It is pointless security theatre. It serves no purpose, and does not work anyway... – Krist van Besien Oct 25 '19 at 18:18

3 Answers3

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I asked the UK Department for Transport essentially this question earlier this year and got the following response:

The DfT is responsible for regulating transport operators to undertake security measures aimed at protecting passengers, the mode of travel and associated infrastructure from acts of violence, including terrorism. For international rail travel, statutory powers are provided by the Channel Tunnel (Security) Order 1994.

The Government takes the security of the Channel Tunnel and the protection of all those travelling and working within that network very seriously. The security measures that are in place are designed to protect the travelling public and the Channel Tunnel from unlawful interference and possible attack.

Responsibility for the security of the Channel Tunnel is split between the UK and France. Trains and shuttles travelling from the UK to France are the responsibility of the UK, and the DfT sets the security measures that both Eurostar and Eurotunnel must undertake. We continuously monitor the effectiveness of security measures with the aim of improving our controls, taking account of new and emerging threats. This is done through commissioning research projects and acting upon recommendations.

Trains and shuttles travelling from France to the UK are the responsibility of France and security measures are undertaken by the French Customs authority, the Douane. We work closely with French authorities to ensure the comparability of security measures deployed at both stations and terminals

The protective security regime in place is based on the assessed threat level in both the UK and France, and is designed to be proportionate in mitigating the security threat to the Channel Tunnel, whilst causing the minimum inconvenience to passengers.

Therefore, it would be inappropriate to be specific about the measures currently in place. However, it is worth emphasising that not all our security measures are visible. Every passenger, regardless of whether they are travelling from France or the UK, has an equal chance of selection for screening, which gives the regime a deterrence value.

I hope this helpful, assuring you that the Department takes the security and safety of the travelling public seriously.

My hypothesis for the real reason is that when the relevant laws were passed, they were following an 'airport style' security model and not a 'train style' model. As they are encoded in law with responsibility split between UK and France changing it will be a hassle and there is no political will to do so.

Mark Perryman
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    Which despite its length manages to fail to answer the question in a classic example of civil service speak. (But +1 to you, it's not your text.) – mdewey Jul 29 '18 at 09:20
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    @mdewey that's not quite fair: it clarifies that it's not Eurostar's own choice, for example, and reinforces the OP's hypothesis that the answer is 'because Channel Tunnel'. – nekomatic Oct 11 '18 at 14:35
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    Re the last paragraph ("historical reasons"), note that when the Chunnel opened the IRA was active. It was the year after the Bishopsgate bombing, and IIRC there were plausible fears that they would target the Chunnel. – Peter Taylor Oct 26 '19 at 06:43
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While the Eurostar trains have a more strict security system than most of the trains in Europe, it is not the only one with security checks. The Thalys trains from France have extra checks, including a luggage scanner and a metal detector (as far as I can recognize the machines when passing through the system.)

Paris was attacked a few times in a short span and the powers that be decided that extra measures were needed.

So while most trains in Europe are not deemed to be under high risk of attack some are, and there are more trains with security measures and with the platforms of other Thalys stations changed for the Eurostar security, I would not be surprised to see the Thalys measures rolled out wider as well.

Willeke
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    Thalys only checks luggage on trains leaving Paris. Not at other stations. This on the theory that terrorists are idiots. – Krist van Besien Oct 25 '19 at 18:19
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    As my latest check on Thalys was in Lille, I have to disagree. And I am pretty sure they will extend the checks rather than stop them. – Willeke Oct 25 '19 at 18:28
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    I rode Thalys trains in September 2019 going Paris-Amsterdam-Paris, and Paris-Cologne-Paris, and there was no security screening. We all walked through unattended metal detectors. – FlanMan Oct 26 '19 at 16:08
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    I for sure hope they do not extend those checks. They serve no purpose and hamper the expansion of rail services. The security checks are the reason DB dropped its plan to serve London. – Krist van Besien Oct 27 '19 at 06:05
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    Update on this: The checks added after the 2015 attack had been largely abandoned for a long time, metal detectors at Gare du Nord were finally removed earlier this summer and it's now possible to walk to the train without any formality, ticket checks are performed at the door as they were many years ago (instead of the entrance to the platform). – Relaxed Aug 29 '22 at 08:23
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When the Channel tunnel was build to logical thing would have been to use it to properly link the Continental and British networks. However there were issues with that. One was that trains were out of fashion in the UK at that time. So Eurostar tried to look as unlike a train service as possible. Hence the compulsory check in, the separate terminal, the security check etc...

Another argument is that the channel tunnel is special, and thus requires these security measures. However, the rules actually do not require that all luggage is scanned. Only spot checks are required. The same applies to cars and trucks where only random checks are performed. The checks are also not know to actually work. We have not seen any thwarted terrorist plots, but we had two cases of the tunnel being shut down after a fire. Terrorists, take not. Taking out the Chunnel is actually rather trivial.

It is unfortunate that this security theatre exists. Apart from being inconvenient and not serving a purpose it also hampers the expansion of Eurostar services. You can now go non stop from London to Amsterdam, but not the other way round. The Frankfurt - London service Deutsche Bahn wanted to introduce got shelved when they could not get the requirement for security checks waived. Services to many other destinations that would be very useful (Geneva for example) will never see the light of day. It has made the idea of commuting between France and the UK impractical. Compare this with that other great water crossing, the Øresund crossing between Denmark and Sweden.

There are some other railways that now also have security checks. But it is there even more obvious that they are only for show. Only checking passengers at some stations is pointless, as someone with bad intentions will just board at a station without those checks. The fact that so few incidents happen on trains shows us that in reality the problem that is "solved" here doesn't really exist.

Krist van Besien
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  • Denmark and Sweden, right? – Peter Taylor Oct 28 '19 at 05:36
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    DB = Deutsche Bahn? – FlanMan Oct 28 '19 at 07:21
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    Can you edit the rant out of this answer? I see very little real answer in here. – Willeke Oct 28 '19 at 09:10
  • I am trying to explain. When there is no apparent logic behind the existence of something you sometimes need to point out the obvious: That is does not exist because of a real need. – Krist van Besien Nov 04 '19 at 07:06
  • Security theater and several other rant expressions keep this a rant in my view. – Willeke Nov 04 '19 at 09:16
  • Not to defend the luggage inspection side of the check-in, but the most honerous requirement are actually the immigration formalities and they do serve a purpose. The passport check is what's currently holding up the Amsterdam-London link and I suspect this might have weighed more heavily in the DB decision. Also note that Eurostar did operate trains from the French Alps (forcing everybody to disembark at Calais) so it's possible, just not that convenient. A link to Geneva already stretches the limit of what's commercially viable in this era of low-cost flights. – Relaxed Nov 04 '19 at 09:29
  • @Relaxed. Without the security checks and with passport control on the train, you could run trains London-Geneva with stops in Lille, Charles-de-Gaulle or Marne La Vallee, Macon and Geneva. Without the need for everyone to go end-to-end, I don't see why that would not be commercially viable. – Mark Perryman Nov 04 '19 at 10:24
  • @MarkPerryman “Passport control on the train” is doing most of the work here, the point I was making stands. In fact, it's already perfectly possible to do all this with a check in Calais but that would only make the journey even longer. The trend in France has been to drop intermediate stop (that's certainly the case for Macon) and have more trains going to the larger, final destination (say Bordeaux or Rennes) directly or perhaps with only one intermediate stops (say Le Mans or Angers but not both). Nearly all the long-distance omnibus trains have been replaced by point-to-point links. – Relaxed Nov 04 '19 at 20:36
  • @Relaxed. Fair. London - Paris outskirts - Geneva then should be viable for a couple of trains per day. I suspect that without the need for physical security infrastructure then the argument for on-train immigration control would be more convincing. I guess my main point is that services that would be viable otherwise are made non-viable. – Mark Perryman Nov 05 '19 at 10:00
  • @relaxed: It is true that SNCF seems to behave more an more like an airline (see the Ouigo) this is not a good trend though. I hope with the opening of the market someone steps in. Trains excel where they can leverage network effects, and that requires short frictionless transfers for example. There are a lot of trains in Europe with end-to-end travel times of 10hr and more, that do fine because they have a lot of intermediate traffic, and their integration in the rest of the network makes them convenient. – Krist van Besien Nov 07 '19 at 16:30
  • @KristvanBesien I have the feeling we are getting carried away and discussing many different things, which is not what comments are for. I can agree with some of what Mark or you wrote but it's not true that an extensive network of slow 10+ hours trains between France and England would obviously have been technically feasible or commercially viable. Furthermore, you're confusing security inspections and immgration checks. The latter are specific to Eurostar services but actually apply equally to cars and lorries passengers using "le shuttle" and explain most of the constraints. – Relaxed Nov 09 '19 at 13:20
  • So the overall conclusion that security theatre and a deliberate attempt to make Eurostar feel like an airline is the only thing explaing the way it's operated is still unfounded. – Relaxed Nov 09 '19 at 13:22