How to take a thrilling high speed rail journey from Zurich to London

Departing from Zurich

The train will depart from a gleis (platform / track) which is by the main concourse.

Connect in Zurich when travelling by train to London from a swathe of Swiss destinations including Chur, Lugano, St Gallen and St Moritz.

Arriving at the Gare De Lyon

On this route via Paris and you will need to make the transfer between the Gare De Lyon, where the Lyria train will arrive, and the Gare Du Nord, from where the Eurostar will depart.

On the usual timetable the first five departures of the day to Paris all connect into Eurostar trains on to London, which depart from the Gare Du Nord around 1hr 30 mins after the Lyria train from Zurich will have arrived into the Gare de Lyon.

Checking-in at the Gare Du Nord:

At the Gare Du Nord the check in and waiting area for the Eurostar (the 'Hall Du Londres') is at an upper level, above the main concourse.
The access to this upper level is some distance from the voie/platforms/tracks that the Eurostars depart from.
The escalators leading up to Eurostar departures are located at the rear wall of the station building, on the opposite side of the concourse to voies/platforms/tracks 14 - 15.

When the service is operating normally, the transfer across Paris by the RER train will take less than 25 mins, from stepping off the TGV at the Gare De Lyon to being on the concourse at the Gare Du Nord.
So if the train from Zurich arrives in Paris on time and the RER is as it should be, you will be at the Gare Du Nord around one hour prior to the departure of the Eurostar.

However, Eurostar recommends that holders of Standard Class And Standard Premier tickets should arrive at the Gare Du Nord 90 minutes before departure.
Which may explain why Trainline doesn't typically sell this Zurich to London journey as and end-to-end booking.
Because if the train is from Zurich is delayed by 30mins, making the connection into the Eurostar will become a race against the clock.

Though as access to Eurostar is closed off from 30 mins prior to departure, being at the Gare Du Nord one hour before departure, as per the usual schedule will allow enough time to make the Eurostar.

Eurostar recommends that holders of Business Premier tickets should arrive at the Gare Du Nord 30 minutes before departure, with access to check-in being closed off from 15 mins prior to departure.

The Eurostar on to London:

Final Destination: London St Pancras

Note that these trains will no longer be calling at Ashford International or Ebbsfleet International, until an unspecified date likely to be in 2025 at the earliest.

Note that London is in a different time zone to mainland Europe, it is one hour behind; hence what can seem like a discrepancy between the journey time and the interval between the departure and arrival times.

Our guide to arriving by Eurostar in London is here.

Book Early And Save: Yes

Online bookings open: up to 6 months ahead of of the travel date

Eurostar does not sell tickets for this journey.

Seat reservations are automatically included when booking tickets for both trains.

Your ticket will not include the RER train across Paris from the Gare De Lyon to the Gare Du Nord.

Eurostar train ticket terms summary

The only ticket type are the Flexible tickets, but it is the class of service you opt to travel by, which impacts on the terms and conditions of travel.

*Exchanges

Book to travel in Standard and Standard Premier class:
The booked date and time can be exchanged to a different departure to the same destination up to one hour* before departure time.

• If the cost of your new ticket is more than the cost of your original ticket, you will be required to pay the difference;
• If the cost of your new ticket is less than the cost of your original ticket, you will not receive a refund of the difference.

Book to travel in Premier class:
The booked date and time can be exchanged to a different departure up until the end of the previous day, without having to pay any price differences on any other charges.

The Eurostar ticket terms summary is here

Refunds

Book to travel in Standard and Standard Premier class:

• Up to seven days or more before the date of departure you will need to pay a fee of £25 per person for a one-way / single ticket and £50 per person for a two-way / return ticket - So you will only receive any sum you paid in excess of these sums.
• Less than seven days before the date of departure, tickets are non-refundable - Also applies if you exchanged a ticket to an alternative departure, under seven days ahead.

Book to travel in Premier class:
Up until the end of the day before departure date, tickets can be refunded at no additional cost

Seat Reservations on the Eurostar

Reservations are mandatory so seats are assigned when booking - But after a booking has been completed, you use the ‘Manage Your Booking’ facility, which can be easily found on the Eurostar website and select specific seats within the travel class you have chosen.

You will need to enter a Booking Reference number - but other booking agents such as Trainline, Rail Europe, SNCF Connect, B-Europe and NS International, will also include this number on the communication sent to you.

Making the connection in Paris:

There is relatively new E.U. legislation which protects travellers against financial loss in the event of missed connections due to train delays, but it only applies to 'through tickets'.
The Eurostar terms and conditions specifically state that when booking journeys which combine Eurostar + Thalys trains 'through tickets' will be issued.
However, 'for all other journeys that combine a Eurostar Service and a service provided by another carrier(s), including when purchased in a single commercial transaction, those tickets will be separate contracts and issues regarding delays, missed connections, cancellations, compensation, and the management of aftersales will be handled accordingly'.

Though both SNCF and Eurostar are members of The Railteam Alliance which offers a Hop on the next available train (HOTNAT) policy.
It 'allows travelers to take the next high-speed service leaving from the same station as originally planned when a delay on or cancellation of a preceding Railteam member’s high-speed service prevents them from making their originally-planned connection. This service is free of charge and is subject to the following conditions:

• HOTNAT only applies at the station at which the passenger originally planned to change trains and in cases of train delays and train cancellations.
• The approval of HOTNAT is subject to the available capacity on board each train. Seats are not guaranteed'.

So 'issues regarding missed connection and cancellations' should be 'handled' by Railteam's HOTNAT policy.

Though HOTNAT can't be applied if the arrival into Paris after the final Eurostar of the day has departed for London.

This routing is more than three hours longer than travelling via Paris, but it:

• avoids the need to make a transfer between stations across the French capital
• and is a cheaper option for users of Eurail and InterRail passes as the only mandatory reservation on this route is for the Eurostar - so the fairly expensive mandatory rail pass reservation fees to travel by the Lyria train can be avoided.

However, for those who won't be travelling with rail pass, separate tickets will be required for the Zurich to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to London journeys - but they can both be booked on Trainline
Though if you can set off from Zurich before 08:00, you can de-risk the possibility of having to re-book a last-minute ticket for the Eurostar, by booking three journeys, with the third being a later departure on from Bruxelles.

The usual* combination of trains to take is the:

• 07:59 from Zurich to Frankfurt (Main)
• 12:26 from Frankfurt (Main) to Bruxelles-Midi - the connecting time between trains in Frankfurt (Main) will be 36 mins
• the 16:51 Eurostar from Buxelles-Midi to London St Pancras - the time to make the transfer in Bruxelles-Midi will be around 1hr 15mins.

*= A journey of this length can be subject to schedules having to be altered.

Separate tickets will be required for the Zurich to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to London journeys - but they can both be booked on Trainline
Though if you can set off from Zurich before 08:00, you can de-risk the possibility of having to re-book a last-minute ticket for the Eurostar, by booking three journeys, with the third being a later departure on from Bruxelles.

Eurostar train ticket terms summary

The only ticket type are the Flexible tickets, but it is the class of service you opt to travel by, which impacts on the terms and conditions of travel.

*Exchanges

Book to travel in Standard and Standard Premier class:
The booked date and time can be exchanged to a different departure to the same destination up to one hour* before departure time.

• If the cost of your new ticket is more than the cost of your original ticket, you will be required to pay the difference;
• If the cost of your new ticket is less than the cost of your original ticket, you will not receive a refund of the difference.

Book to travel in Premier class:
The booked date and time can be exchanged to a different departure up until the end of the previous day, without having to pay any price differences on any other charges.

The Eurostar ticket terms summary is here

Refunds

Book to travel in Standard and Standard Premier class:

• Up to seven days or more before the date of departure you will need to pay a fee of £25 per person for a one-way / single ticket and £50 per person for a two-way / return ticket - So you will only receive any sum you paid in excess of these sums.
• Less than seven days before the date of departure, tickets are non-refundable - Also applies if you exchanged a ticket to an alternative departure, under seven days ahead.

Book to travel in Premier class:
Up until the end of the day before departure date, tickets can be refunded at no additional cost

Seat Reservations on the Eurostar

Reservations are mandatory so seats are assigned when booking - But after a booking has been completed, you use the ‘Manage Your Booking’ facility, which can be easily found on the Eurostar website and select specific seats within the travel class you have chosen.

You will need to enter a Booking Reference number - but other booking agents such as Trainline, Rail Europe, SNCF Connect, B-Europe and NS International, will also include this number on the communication sent to you.
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