Eurostar e320

ShowMeTheJourney has anticipated what questions are most often asked about travelling on these second generation Eurostar trains.

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These e320 trains are used for:

• Almost all departures on the London ↔ Paris route
• All departures on the London ↔ Amsterdam / The Netherlands route via Bruxelles route
• Some departures on the London ↔ Bruxelles route

These trains travel at up to 300 km/h / 185mph on the high speed lines, which comprise most of all of the routes they take, except for the journey between Bruxelles and Antwerp on the Amsterdam route.

On these 320 trains, the Business Premier/Standard Premier seats are located in coaches 1 - 3 and 14-16, so are the towards the front and the rear of the train.,
Standard class is located in coaches 4 - 7 and 10-13, the bar car is coach 9

On the older e300 trains, the Business Premier/Standard Premier seats are located in coaches 7 - 12, while Standard class is located in coaches 1 - 5 and 13 - 18. ).

Though it isn't unknown for an e320 train to be substituted by an e300 train - in the unlikely event of that occurring, reservations will be re-issued at check-in.

Yes - seat reservations are included with any ticket booking.

Specific seats can't be selected during the booking process, but this facility is now available after a booking has been completed.
The advice is to use the ‘Manage Your Booking’ facility, which can be easily found on the Eurostar website
You don't need to have booked the ticket with Eurostar
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.

Log in to check the position of the seat you have been allocated on the seating plan.
You can then select alternative, available seats at no extra charge.

Yes, but by the time of your booking, the rail pass reservations may not be available on specific departures.
See the info below, or take a look at the detailed guide.

There is a bar/bistro car, the Eurostar café, which can be used by all passengers during the journey.
Though travellers in Standard Premier class and Business Premier Class will receive a complimentary at-seat meal service.

Yes - and accessing the portal is free.

Yes - And there are sockets for both E.U and UK style plugs.

Eurostar does not offer this facility.

Each piece of luggage can be up to 85cm long at its widest point

• In Standard and Standard Premier, you can bring two pieces of luggage + one piece of hand luggage - such as handbags, briefcases and laptop bags
• In Business Premier, you can bring three pieces of luggage + one piece of hand luggage
• And in all travel classes, children can bring one piece of luggage + one piece of hand luggage.

Though what's comparatively unusual is that each larger item of luggage must be labelled.

Yes and they are located in Standard Premier Class and Business Premier Class on these trains.

Boarding and Disembarking Assistance is also available, though it should ideally be booked 24hrs in Advance.

Only on trains travelling between London and Brussels - and space must be booked in advance by emailing travelservices@eurostar.com -

If you’re travelling between London and Paris, your bike must be disassembled and placed in a box - And space must still be booked in advance.

Pre-boarding, the bike, non- disassembled or boxed, must be dropped off at the luggage area.
At the end of the journey, the bike will be handed back to you on the platform.

Note that non-folding bikes cannot be taken on board at all when travelling between London and The Netherlands.

Only guide dogs / Assistance dogs can be taken on board.

These trains have the facilities that are now to be expected on state-of-the-art high speed trains - power sockets, sleek toilets, WiFi and TV screens inside the coaches.

Eurostar conductors will be on the platform to help you find the coach in which your seat(s) will be located.

There is only one door per coach, therefore some seats have easier access by using the door on the adjacent coach/car.

Hence it can be a good idea to check the seating lan to ascertain which coach door gives the easiest access to your seat.

Or it can be worth asking the conductor on the platform, which door you should use for your easiest seat access option.

If you have large items of luggage, then the best option is stow it in the racks by the doors, and then find your seat.

You won’t need to rush to find your seat, all seats are reserved, so nobody else will be sitting in it.

If you find your seat first without stowing your luggage, you may discover that there is no space around your seat in which to store particularly large items of luggage.

However, medium sized bags (larger than the max size carry-on airline bag) will fit in the above seat luggage racks.
A big tick in the Eurostar e320 plus box is that these above seat luggage racks are exceptionally large.

Info about luggage allowances and items such as taking pushchairs is here.

Travelling with bicycles

Eurostar has also resumed it's boxed bike service for non-folding standard sized bicycles on the Paris <> London route.
Folding bikes can be taken on board as hand luggage as long as they fit inside a container or bag with a maximum length of 85cm.

The mandatory rail pass reservation fees for this type of Eurostar train are comparatively expensive, as they similar to the very cheapest single journey ticket prices

However, those cheapest ticket prices, during the periods of time that they are available, inevitably sell out fast, so the rail pass reservation fees will save money.

The availability of rail pass reservations

When the ticket prices of a journey by a specific Eurostar departure to and from London reach a certain level, the rail pass reservations will become unavailable on that specific departure.
The logic being is that it doesn't make sense to Eurostar for a combination of a rail pass + the rail pass reservation fees, to be a cheaper option than, for example, booking tickets for a return journey from London to Paris.

Neither the price of the Eurail / Interrail pass or the rail pass reservation fees rise at times of high demand, but Eurostar ticket prices do so.
There is no set formula as to the timings of when Eurostar will release tickets for sale at the price at which rail pass reservations will become unavailable on a specific departure - Reservations on Eurostar trains can now be booked up to 330 days ahead of the travel date!
Though prices on each Eurostar departure will increase as the travel date approaches - and at times of particularly high ticket demand, rail pass reservations can become available on a specific departure, several months in advance, particularly on the London ↔ Paris route

So if you will need to travel by a specific Eurostar departure, you'll want to check that rail pass reservations are available for the train you need to take prior to buying a pass
The availability can be looked up on RailEurope and B-Europe without the need to already have the pass numbers, that are assigned when buying a Eurail / InterRail pass - Though you will need a pass number to go ahead and book.

Worth knowing is that before you have a pass, the function of the Eurail and InterRail 'timetable' tool is to show which departures require a reservation.
The timetable tool / online reservation service will only show the actual availability per departure, once you have purchased a pass, received a pass number and can then log-in.
Therefore before you have a pass, so can't log-in, the InterRail/Eurail websites will tend to show seats as available on every departure, so don't assume that is the situation.
The key thing is to avoid buying a pass and assuming Eurostar reservations will be available, and then discovering that they aren't on the train you need to take.

UK residents using InterRail passes

UK residents should also note that Eurostar reservations will only be valid when making one outward journey and return journey from and to the UK.
So if you were to follow an itinerary which involves heading back to the UK and then, for example, heading off later for a few days to travel around The Netherlands, you wouldn't be able to use the pass on the Eurostars on the second trip to the Netherlands.

Also the journeys within the UK need to be on the days that you will heading off to continental Europe or returning - so it's not possible to stay overnight in London before or after taking a Eurostar and then use an InterRail pass to travel to and from London.
The reason being is that a maximum of two travel days is permitted in the resident country of a pass user, and the journey on the Eurostar is counted as a day of use.