Eurostar’s live service bulletin, updated at 14:44 CET on 15 July, flags “delays at Brussels-Midi/Zuid” caused by exceptional crowding and enhanced EU border-control procedures. Passengers on London-Brussels and Amsterdam-Brussels services are being held on platforms while UK Border Force and Belgian Federal Police process long holiday-weekend queues. The operator advises passengers to arrive at least 90 minutes before departure and notes that some trains may leave out of sequence once clearance backlogs ease. Business-class and Carte Blanche holders still have fast-track access, but Eurostar says even priority channels are experiencing waits of up to 40 minutes. Affected travellers may exchange tickets without fee or claim delay compensation in line with EU Regulation 2021/782. Eurostar attributes the congestion partly to the roll-out of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) biometric checks for non-EU nationals, which has lengthened processing times. The bottleneck coincides with ongoing engineering works on the Belgian domestic network, reducing platform flexibility at Midi. Corporate travel managers with tight same-day connections to European institutions in Brussels should rebook onto earlier trains or schedule virtual meetings. Eurostar says it is working with station management to add mobile passport booths ahead of the next bank-holiday peak.
Source: Eurostar Live Travel Updates
