In conversation... Andrew Robinson, Eurostar

Andrew Robinson, head of onboard services at Eurostar, explains to April Waterston how passenger and crew safety are at the forefront of Eurostar’s post-COVID onboard service

Casting my mind back, everything happened rather suddenly. We initially started noticing customers not travelling as much from the beginning of March, and from there it was a very steep downward spiral.

We took the decision for the safety of crew and our passengers to take the catering off the train before we reduced the service entirely. Removing our onboard service enabled us to regroup, review and look at the situation.

Over the next few months we looked at how we could reintegrate the service that our customers had come to love in a safe and secure manner. Even now we continuously look and review our operations and look at the science to enable us to offer something that is absolutely safe and secure and underpins our safety strategy which we call “taking you there with care”.

Crew safety

All crew now go through a comprehensive briefing and retraining process to ensure that they’re fully aware of the risks, how to protect themselves, and are aware of the symptoms.

We encourage frequent sanitising of hands and social distancing onboard as much as practical. We also make sure that when crew are operating in a restricted area of the galley, they are still maintaining their distance and are wearing face masks or visors and gloves.

What underpins this is the additional cleaning that we’ve launched – every train is now deep cleaned before it enters service. We’ve identified high touchpoint areas like door handles and bar counters, and also now have additional cleaners that travel onboard, cleaning throughout the journey.

This service may not be on every single train, but it is on the majority of our peak services when we anticipate a higher volume of customers.

Minimising touchpoints

We’ve reviewed how we can deliver the Business Premier and Standard Premier service that we’re known for. All food is now served in its packaging for the customer to remove themselves, so they can have confidence that no one else has manipulated their food since it left the kitchen.

The menus are now on a digital platform accessible through a QR code, which removes the need for physical menus onboard – a move which will also help us hit some sustainability goals long-term.

In all the research that we’ve been doing over the past few months, one thing that comes out is that customers trust us. It’s important that we continue to maintain that trust – everything we do is done to make sure that when our customers return, they feel safe and secure.