Mismatch between Rail planner and Eurostar timetables

Apologies.  I misread the planner.  There is not as much variance between the planner and the Eurostar website as I thought.  However the journey times according to the planner seem to be about 30 minutes longer.

Hi ​@rvdborgt 

If you click on the journey itself, you’ll see a message advising you to allow 45 to 90 minutes before departure for baggage drop and border control. The departure time shown in the journey is the time provided by Eurostar. This buffer is included to reduce the risk of customers missing their train.

​@Eurail Community Moderator 

I find it very hard to believe that Eurostar would provide incorrect information about their departure times.  Also, 35 minutes earlier doesn't match with the check-in time (30 minutes). It leads to lots of confusion, as I had already mentioned.

From the passenger's point of view, the departure time shown should always be the same as what is shown on the reservation, at the station and anywhere else. Eurostar themselves also do that, so there's no reason to deviate from that.

You can of course add a warning about the check-in time, already in the planner results (where now an incorrect time is shown). Could that be done?

I agree with ​@rvdborgt on this.

This is a question that comes up every day on the Facebook groups and other forums. Customers can't find their train on Rail Planner, because the departure time disagrees with every other timetable they've seen, including what's written on their reservation!

35 minutes is also a really weird buffer for Eurail to choose. It's not the time check-in closes (-30), it's definitely not a sensible time to recommend passengers arrive at the station (-45 to -60), and it's not even Eurostar’s recommended arrival time (-75 to -90).

Hi ​@rvdborgt and ​@ralderton 

I get your point. I will give this as feedback to the SMEs for the App. Can’t promise any change happening any time soon. 

​@Eurail Community Moderator 

Just to emphasise that this behaviour must change, here's another worried post from someone who thinks their booked train no longer exists.

The current app behaviour is completely different than what passengers expect.

​@Eurail Community Moderator 

Action is needed soon. People really get confused by these 35 minutes and sometimes panic:

So please let us know what the plan is to resolve this and when. I don't think it's acceptable to keep this in the app for much longer.

Hey ​@rvdborgt ,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I've created a follow-up ticket for this situation. We'll update you as soon as we have word.

​@Eurail Community Moderator Any updates?

Showing the incorrect Eurostar departure time for the trains from/to London continues to confuse many pass users and there are multiple questions about it every day in various groups, e.g. on Facebook.

Hi ​@rvdborgt 

Thank you for following up.

This is known feedback and has been discussed internally multiple times with our App team. At the moment, the current behaviour, including the 35-minute check-in message, remains the preferred approach and there are no planned changes.

We understand that this can cause confusion, and we appreciate you continuing to share your feedback with us. We'll be sure to pass on any future updates if the situation changes.

Thanks again for your patience and for helping other travellers!

Thanks for responding, ​@Camilo. Does anyone from the app team explain why they prefer this behaviour? It’s such a bizarre choice.

If you click on the journey itself, you’ll see a message advising you to allow 45 to 90 minutes before departure for baggage drop and border control. The departure time shown in the journey is the time provided by Eurostar. This buffer is included to reduce the risk of customers missing their train.

The trouble is, they won’t click on the journey. They don’t get that far.

Let’s say they have a reservation for the 13:01 to Paris. They search Rail Planner, but don’t see it listed in the results, so they assume their train has been cancelled, or that they’ve done something wrong.

Nobody who is searching for the 13:01 is going to pay any attention to a train listed at 12:26. Why would they?

I'll keep referring people to customer service to report this bug. It is a bug if you're showing the incorrect departure time.

A perfect example of what I mention above, from a Facebook group.

This person is looking for the 1231. They can’t find it. Of course they’re not going to choose the 1156.

We see this every day. I just don’t understand why Eurail is deliberately making life harder for their customers?

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Please do continue to feed this back to the app team ​@Camilo.  I’ll continue to refer passengers to Customer Service. There’s also a good argument for encouraging them to treat this as disruption - because the train they have a reservation for doesn’t exist.