England to France - Channel Tunnel > Reviews > vive l'eurotunnel angleterre

Author's product rating:   

Frequency of trains	Good
Reliability of trains	Mostly on time
Comfort of trains	Slightly uncomfortable
On-board facilities	Very poor

Advantages:	speed and efficiency on the uk side
Disadvantages:	no help inefficient on the french side

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

as a frequent traveller to france, i generally look for the company that offers the best travel deals. of late eurotunnel has been offering one of the best deals for a day trip. despite numerous problems in the past, and i have to say, all at the french side, i still persist in giving the company 'one last try'.
yesterday tho' 12/7/01 i think was the one last try too many. after checking in on the french side at 19h21 - was told that it was too late to board the 19h51 but in plenty of time for 20h04. the check in counter was efficient and advised that boarding would take place in 20/25 minutes. great time to go grab a coffee and a quick bite to eat. inside the terminal building, the announcement was made that boarding would now commence for the 20h04 train. grabbed everything and headed off to passport control. this was not 19h35 giving us almost 30 minutes to spare. no problems getting to the french passport control but then some jobsworth in their infinte wisdom decided to channel three lanes of traffic into one just before the uk passport control.
eventually got thru at 19h55 - told my passengers that they were cutting it a bit fine but we should be on and away on time. to the final set of barriers where the only trains showing were the 20h21 and 20h51. no sign of the 20h04 and by this time, there were scores of cars with the same letter arriving all expecting to get on the 20h04 train.

went to the person in charge who sneeringly (in that ever so french way) declared that we were late, asked why we were not there earlier and that boarding closed 10 minutes earlier. tried to explain that we left the instant the cars were called but were held in the queue at passport control. C'est pas mon problem! was the response.

this time eurotunnel i think you have gone too far - hello p and o a regular traveller returns!