> ... as bad or worse than what the Eurostar has now
I was just on a Eurostar train from Antwerp to Paris last month (connecting from a local train from Boom), the week before the olympics, even, and security was nonexistent. Didn't even have to go through a metal detector, just walked through the fare gates and boarded. I guess maybe stations are inconsistent with their security level? What did you have to go through?
Same as a typical airport, everything into bins, send them through the x-ray machine, and walk through a metal detector. Leaving Paris, I had to go through French passport control (a person) and then through the UK passport control (a kiosk, same as Heathrow). The passport bit I get has everything to do with border control. I figured the x-ray scan and metal detector was universal. I've seen reviews that seemed to suggest that. I have no personal experience, though, with Eurostar staying within the Schengen Area.
Until last year, only the London services were branded as Eurostar, whereas Paris <-> Brussels/Amsterdam/Cologne was known as Thalys. Thalys was acquired by Eurostar a few years back and evidently they wanted to unify their brands now, though.
I was just on a Eurostar train from Antwerp to Paris last month (connecting from a local train from Boom), the week before the olympics, even, and security was nonexistent. Didn't even have to go through a metal detector, just walked through the fare gates and boarded. I guess maybe stations are inconsistent with their security level? What did you have to go through?