Eurostar to stop direct trains between London and Disneyland Paris
A popular travel route for many families across the UK will soon be cut off as rail provider Eurostar has announced changes to its services.
From 5 June 2023, there will be no direct trains running from London to Disneyland Paris, a connection that has been running since 1996.
The news of this long-running connection stopping in summer next year will come as huge disappointment to families, especially ones who planned a Disneyland Paris break during next year's school summer holidays.
Families traveling from London will now need to travel across Paris to get to the park once they arrive in the French capital at the main Eurostar terminal at Gare du Nord.
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Two trains will be needed to arrive at Disneyland Paris, which is on the far east of Paris.
Eurostar says it has cancelled the route to focus on its most popular routes and destinations as it recovers from the money lost through the pandemic and to mitigate challenges it continues to face from Brexit.
We have already seen signs of Eurostar doubling down on its popular routes as the company announced in July it was adding additional trains on its route to Amsterdam.
In a statement released to its third party travel agents, Eurostar explained it decision to ditch the long-running Disney route: "As the business continues to recover from the pandemic, we need to focus on our core routes to allow us to stabilise our operation and customer experience.
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"Whilst we have seen travel demand return this year, we have financial commitments as a result of the pandemic which we will continue to face for a number of years."
The statement continued: "We are also monitoring developments in the EU's proposed Entry Exit System, and we want to focus on providing a reliable service with the experience that our customers rightly expect.
"We will still be offering connecting fares to allow passengers to enjoy the benefit of high-speed rail travel from London to Disney via Lille and Paris."
Eurostar is a popular international high-speed rail service that was formed in 1994.
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The provider connects the UK with France, Belgium and the Netherlands. It runs passenger services between St Pancras International and Amsterdam, Paris, Lille, Brussels and Rotterdam.
The company says it will continue to revisit plans on services and that will be done under new CEO, Gwendoline Cazenave, who takes over from current boss Jacques Damas in October.
Topics: Travel, Disneyland, London
Callum Jones