Eurostar has announced that it will no longer run direct trains from London to Disneyland Paris from June 5, 2023, ending the service which started in 1996.
It comes in the same week that the company announced it wouldn’t be serving Ebbsfleet and Ashford International stations in Kent for the next few years and will be led by a new CEO formerly from France’s state railway company from this October.
Families will now need to travel across Paris from the main Eurostar terminal at Gare du Nord on two suburban trains to the theme park which is in the far east of the French capital. It will add an hour to journey times and may be a challenge for families with young children needing buggies or those with mobility needs such as wheelchair users.
In a statement issued to its third-party travel agents Eurostar explained: “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. 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”.
As the UK is not in the European Union Schengen area, each time Eurostar departures run from Disney, border staff have to be dispatched there, especially for it. Eurostar says it will revisit its plans on a continuing basis, starting next year.
