Eurostar e300

These e300 trains are the original Eurostar trains.

A now completed refurbishment program has completely updated the interiors, with new seats and information screens, plus the addition of WiFi access and power sockets by all seats.

On e300 trains, the Business Premier/Standard Premier seats are located in coaches 7 - 12, while standard class is located in coaches 1 - 5 and 4 - 18.

On the newer e320 trains, the Business Premier/Standard Premier seats are located in coaches 1 - 3 and 14-16, while standard class is located in coaches 4 - 7 and 10-13.

These e300 trains are used for some departures on this route:

London - Ebbsfleet - (Ashford) - (Calais) - Lille - Bruxelles

These e300 trains are also used for a few departures on this route:

London - Ebbsfleet (Ashford) - Paris

You will be travelling by e300 trains on these two routes.

(1) London - Ashford - Lyon - Avignon - Marseille

(2) London - Ashford - Moutiers - Aime la Plagne - Bourg St Maurice

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

These e300 trains have one door per coach - the coach numbers are on an electronic panel beside the door.

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.

As space on the luggage racks by the doors is inevitably limited, if you have large items of luggage aim to be amongst the first passengers to board.

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

The arrangement of the seats has no relationship at all to the spacing of the windows - particularly in Standard class.

So the advice is to make use the ‘manage your seat’ facility when making a booking on the Eurostar website.

Check the position of the seat you have been allocated on the seating plan and if it doesn’t line up with a window then change it – particularly if you will be travelling by daylight.

The view from the windows on a Eurostar is rarely scintillating, but if you can’t see out of a window, the standard class journey can feel a tad claustrophobic.

Some welcome news, rail pass users can now pay reservation fees to travel on Eurostar trains, in a similar manner to other international European high speed trains.
Previously tickets were offered at a special rail pass user rate, which could be more expensive than the cheapest fares.

The new rail pass reservation fees are similar to the cheapest single journey ticket prices, but as those cheapest tickets can sell out quickly, it's likely that the rail pass reservation fees will save money.

You can book rail pass reservations for Eurostar trains online with no booking fees via B-Europe - or they ARE now available on the Eurostar website.
Booking in advance is recommended.

You can also obtain a rail pass reservations without paying a booking fee at Eurostar stations.
However, if you want to do this on the day of travel be prepared to be flexible re: the train you will take.
Some Eurostar departures can sell out completely, so you may have to take a (much) later train.

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 would have to choose between:

• not using the pass on the Eurostars travelling from and to the UK on the second trip to the Netherlands, or
• travelling back to the UK by Eurostar at the end of the first trip and then on the Eurostar when travelling to the Netherlands.

Eurostar has had to temporarily (hopefully) suspend the transportation of non-folding bicycles. The info below is for the procedure which was in place before the suspension and which will hopefully resume shortly.

If you place a folding bike in its bag it can be taken on board as hand-luggage - if it is bagged.

Non-folding bikes can be taken on board if you book in advance OR if you use the registered luggage service at the station on the day of travel.

A flat rate of £30 per journey is charged for storing non-folding bikes on board a Eurostar train, but this fee can't be paid on the website when booking your journey tickets.
So it's best to call Eurostar's telephone booking service on 03448225822 from within the UK, or 044344822582 from outside the UK as soon as possible, bookings generally open around 180 days of the travel date - and then book the travel ticket and bike reservations over the phone as a single booking.

As explained on Seat 61, you can save money by disassembling a bike and placing it in a bag or box - and if you do that you can also increase the possibility of the bike(s) being accepted on to your first choice of Eurostar departure, spaces are more limited for assembled bikes.

Also worth knowing if you will be taking a non-folding bike, no matter how you prepare it for transport, is that only the trains between London and Lille, Paris and Bruxelles will accept a limited number of bikes on ANY departure.
Bikes cannot be transported on the last train of the day to Amsterdam and can't be conveyed at all to/from Ashford, Rotterdam, Ebbsfleet, or any of the destinations less regularly served such as Avignon, Lyon, Marne La Vallée, Marseille and the ski resorts served by Eurostar.