Say again?

Bar in Reading.........

Oh, thank you, Noth, for this helpful and detailed report!


I've now looked at various sites, SBB, SNCF, Eurostar, and others, and all my searches yield routes via Paris, even when I enter Lille. Some even suggest travelling Geneva-Paris-Lille-London...


This may sound like an internet-incompetent request, but could you please post a link to the website on which you booked? Or suggest search criteria which could force the search funciton to avoid Paris? Thanks very much for any help you can give.

Only at certain times and days
See image below, the 830 on Saturday and 1030 on Sunday are via Lille. The 830 train is also available Mondays and Thursdays.

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For Tuesdays and Wednesdays (when there's no service), you can apparently take the regional train to Lyon and hook up with the service from there, twice during the day. You do end up waiting around in Lille for 90 minutes (or the same in Lyon) but that's enough time for a decent meal in one of the restaurants of the station. Added bonus, the train leaves a couple of hours later in the morning for the first service!

Also, from what I can see on the eurostar.com page, if you're willing to take that regional train, you can catch a TGV directly to Lille up to much later in the day, and connect to the Eurostar service from there. Makes for a few more options...

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Great News .... Thanks for sharing.