Funeral of Elizabeth II: Eurostar bookings up 15% this weekend

Romain Rouillard 6:59 p.m., September 15, 2022, modified at 7:00 p.m., September 15, 2022

This weekend, all roads will lead to London.

As the United Kingdom prepares for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, which will be held Monday at 8:30 p.m., many visitors are expected in the British capital, including from France.

At the microphone of Elisabeth Assayag, in

, Jacques Gounon, the president of Getlink, operator of the tunnel under the Channel, indicated that the reservations of Eurostar knew a notable increase for Friday and Saturday.

“About 10 to 15%,” he announces.

"There will certainly be Britons but also French people and in particular French people from Hauts-de-France who are more sensitive to the British presence, even if we do not know the nationalities in detail", he added. 

>>

- Train: the Eurostar company plans new destinations in France within five years

All these travelers will return to France on Monday, after the funeral of Elizabeth II.

What lead to a significant increase in traffic both in the trains but also in the road part of the tunnel.

To prevent this high influx, the Getlink company has developed a perfectly oiled logistics.

"We are prepared"

“We are lucky to have an extremely flexible organization. There are 400 trains in the tunnel every day and every night. 'add more and we have, at that time, a frequency which can drop to a departure every ten minutes", develops Jacques Gounon, referring to these large wagons capable of taking several vehicles with them. 

The boss of Getlink recalls that the tunnel manager has already been confronted in the past with significant peaks in attendance.

"There were the Olympic Games in London, the Rugby World Cups, the Bol d'Or which attracted a lot of bikers and therefore we are very prepared to manage significant traffic peaks", he assures us on Europe 1.