AFP, published on Tuesday, August 30, 2022 at 1:43 p.m.
The Eurostar rail company, which operates the trains of the same name through the Channel Tunnel, has announced that it will stop direct services between London and Disneyland Paris next summer, citing the effects of the pandemic and Brexit.
In a statement sent to AFP on Tuesday, the company said it had “taken the decision to no longer provide the direct link between London and Marne-la-Vallée in the summer of 2023”, but no decision has been taken to the next year. “We will review our options for 2024 over the next year,” the rail company said.
Eurostar “continues to recover financially from the pandemic”, but is also preparing for a new computer system which must govern entry and exit from the Schengen area from next year, explains the company in its statement.
The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union has been effective since January 2021 and the British are now considered as nationals of a third State when entering the EU, even if they are exempt from visa for stays less than 90 days.
“We need to focus on our core routes to ensure we can continue to provide a high level of service and experience,” Eurostar added, arguing that passengers can still get to the famous theme park via its trains going to Paris or Lille from the British capital.
The British daily The Independent was particularly moved on Monday by the disappearance of this popular line, seeing it as “the last victim of Brexit” for travelers from across the Channel.
Brexit, and in particular the extended border controls, had also been implicated in July in the huge traffic jams which had disrupted the holiday route of the British towards the continent, sometimes stuck for hours before being able to access the port of Dover, one of the main crossing points.