Phil Richards wrote:
John B wrote:

I guess it's *possible* to carry over 3,200 cigarettes, 90 litres of
wine and 10 litres of spirits onto the train with you, but I'd suggest
this doesn't happen very often...

You might not be able to get away with that much as it well exceeds your
"luggage" allowance. That is one of the reasons why Eurostar don't offer
much cheaper returns from London (or Ashford) to Calais or Lille as they
simply don't want to get into the business of those simply out on cheap
booze runs to France for the day.

Anyone who travels from Ashford to Calais/Lille only takes up a seat
that might later be wanted by a London-Paris/Brussels passenger. If the
ticket prices are the same, then it's no problem - Eurostar get the same
revenues either way. However, if the shorter journeys are cheaper, then
there's a very real possibility that someone will buy a cheap ticket to
hop across the Channel, resulting in someone abandoning their plan to
buy a cheap (but not *as* cheap) ticket from London to Paris because the
seats aren't available. I think that's the main reason Eurostar don't
want more Channel-hop passengers, rather than some institutional
snobbiness - after all, they are there to make profits for their
shareholders, and if cheap channel-hop fares got them more revenues
overall, they'd go for it.

The way to get around the seat occupation problem is to sell super-cheap
"standby" tickets at Ashford for seats on trains that have already
departed London (or are about to, with no chance of selling any more
tickets for that train). You might lose some revenue because people who
would have been prepared to pay the current ~£59 fare would instead just
wait at Ashford in the hope of getting a cheaper standby fare - but as
long as that loss in revenue were balanced by a gain from selling
standby tickets to people who wouldn't have otherwise bothered
travelling, then you're quids-in. In fact, I wonder why they don't do
that already - they must have looked at it.

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London