St Pancras International Railway Station

Heading into St Pancras Station to catch a Eurostar to Amsterdam, we found the station to be a fascinating array of busyness, shops, a piano or two, and places to eat.

I don’t know how people find their way around this railway station, without the help of the Railway Assist. When booking a train, ASK FIR ASSISTANCE IF YOUR JOURNEY MEANS GOING THROUGH THIS STATION!!!!!! The railway assist staff are very helpful, but they are very hard to understand as, for a lot of them, English is not there first language, and they cannot comprehend and empathise my disability and they think I’m just ‘putting it on’. There is only one accessible toilet in the whole of the railway station and that isn’t very good. There isn’t any facilities for helping disabled people interchange to the London Underground and there are no announcements on the station. There are lots of lifts, but there are no Braille signs to tell blind people where to go or Braille on the lift buttons. There was also a piano playing, but if you were very near it, it drowned out the only PA announcement that was the usual “See it, say it, sorted,” police announcements. I had a first class ticket and didn’t realise there was a First Class lounge until someone on the train, after I’d got on the next train to Ashford, told me about it; and I’m not blind! What’s the point of having a First Class ticket if us disabled people can’t use them, because the Rail Assist people assume that we can’t afford a first class ticket?

Having been calling the Eurostar dedicated number for passenger mobility assistance over two days, and listening to naff music for up to 35 minutes, with no indication that I was in the right queue or if the queue was moving, I finally got through. I was looking for wheelchair assistance to and from trains for my wife. Once I got to talk to someone they were very sympathetic and helpful. :-) Postscript. When I got to Eurostar Passenger Assist check in they said, "Oh, there was no need to book ahead, you just have to turn up at least 75 minutes before the train time." Grrrr!