Eurostar has introduced a new contactless system to check tickets and passports at London’s St Pancras railway station in order to reduce congestion.
The facial recognition system uses an app, SmartCheck, for Business Premier and Carte Blanche passengers. It scans their faces and passports, identity documents and tickets, and verifies and gives them access.
This is intended to prevent queues forming. French border requirements for British passengers post-Brexit have meant that queues have formed due to the amount of time needed for passengers’ passports to be checked and stamped. Eurostar trains have been forced to leave hundreds of seats empty on trains to and from London.
The initial trials for the technology started in 2019 but when the pandemic dropped passenger numbers collapsed. Eurostar said that it would like to make the technology available to more passengers and other routes in the future, if it proves successful in the new trials.
Bags will still be scanned by security staff and French border officials will double-check passports.
