The animation made it look like the british dug the whole way from their end, but it's much cooler than that. The tunnel was dug from both sides, meeting in the middle.
you know what they say, you aim for the moon and if you miss etc etc... if they missed each other they'll just end up with 2 tunnels... literally can't lose lol
Technically the British dug a little big further as the French side had tougher rock to dig through. So original plans needed revised and the British agreed to dig further at the cost of the French.
I’ve taken the eurostar several times and you can just walk through the entire length of the train, nobody’s stopping you. They just don’t sell tickets between destinations within Schengen on trains bound to the UK. Those ‘separate cars’ are actually completely different trains that don’t go through the channel tunnel.
I did wonder about this but at Brussels to board a Euro star train can't not go through passport control. So I guess you can't go from Brussels to Lille on Euro star.
@@hublanderuk You can, you would buy a ticket to e.g. London from Brussels, pass the passport control. And then get off in Lille. Stupid if you do, but technically possible.
its usually an end car and for amsterdam-brussels its the entire front 8 cars, been on it enough to see it, eurostar red doesnt really go to lille anymore so london trains are the only ones to connect brussels to lille
This video is just...wrong? At least the ending is. You can't buy a ticket to travel from Paris or Brussels to Lille on a train that is bound for London. Same thing on the UK side, where you can't ride the Eurostar between London St. Pancras and Ashford Int'l (which tbf hasn't had an Eurostar stop since 2020). Those stations are boarding / alighting only, depending on which direction you're travelling in. So the solution isn't to have border guards patrolling cars as shown in the video here, it's that you can't use a London bound train for a journey within the Schengen area. Source: I've taken the Eurostar like 40 times at this point.
It used to be like that. We used to take Eurostar between Brussels and Calais often, and it worked as described like in the video. Also not mentioned is that in Bruxelles-Midi you would board the train from different “terminals” depending on your destination: the big branded Eurostar terminal (with border checks) if you’re going to the UK, or a small access in a side corridor if going to France At at least one occasion my dad was the only passenger and it was the last train of the day, so a security staff member had to stay with him in awkward silence all the way to Calais only to take a 2h taxi ride back to Brussels afterwards It changed at some point in the 2020s, although I don’t remember if it’s after Covid or after Eurostar changed their operations with the Thalys takeover and the services to Amsterdam
Would agree, and you have that border check at St Pancras when arriving in London. Just had this last week. Though, with 2 late trains, they ended up ditching the passport checks x)
5:26 this is completely incorrect. You cannot buy a ticket from Brussels to Lille for a train that runs to London. You can only travel on trains that remain on mainland Europe. On the Brussels to London trains, Lille is a pick-up only stop.
Yes, and there are French and UK immigration checks there if you want to board that service. We caught the train from Lyon and changed to the Eurostar at Lille to go onto London. As Australian passport holders we had to go through both lots of immigration. There were about 30 pax making the transfer, the train arrived about 7 minutes late, there was only one French immigration official (surprise?!), at least there was 4 or 5 officials at the UK desk. This caused the Eurostar to leave Lille about 10 minutes late which meant that it was unable to use the fast rail track from Dover, so we arrived in London 15+ minutes late. Fun times!
@ no Dover to London, we were coming from Lille. Our Eurostar was late so it was announced that we’d missed our scheduled slot on the high speed track to St Pancreas and had to be re-routed which meant the service lost more time.
@aubreyadams7884 except that the third rail capability of Eurostar was removed years ago. It runs solely on overhead power. 25kv and 1500v (around Brussels) There is no other line to divert to. HS1 is the only line in South East England that uses overhead power.
@@hairyairey ok, whatever. All I’m saying is about 10 years ago our train from Lyon was late, the hold up going through immigration at Lille (which is what this video is all about) exacerbated that, causing our Eurostar to be further delayed and it was announced that we’d we missed our scheduled slot and we’d be taking a slower route. So whatever that means is really of no interest to me.
3:33 You missed a whole bunch of (ETA: at least partially) juxtaposed controls. US CBP has 15 "preclearance" checkpoints, where CBP officials have US immigration & customs checkpoints in a foreign country, in Dublin and Shannon in Ireland; Aruba; Bermuda; Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates; Nassau in the Bahamas; and Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg in Canada.
@supersat Interesting. According to Public Safety Canada, the US-Canada preclearance agreement is in place since 1952, and it's currently bilateral under treaty E105453, Agreement on Land, Rail, Marine and Air Transport Preclearance between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States. I've not tried to look up all the other countries' versions. It does indeed seem like Canada just never acted on using their rights to have Canadian preclearance in the US. I wonder why (and whether Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Ireland, & UAE have the same situation & reasons).
Pre-Clearance is kinda it's own legal mess. What Juxtaposed Controls does is that you end up legally leaving the UK or Schengen Zone, and enter the other. Meaning if your train (or ferry) is cancelled, you have to go through passport control again. For Pre-Clearance, it's kinda stupid. If your flight is cancelled, then you'll never have legally left Ireland, Canada or the UAE, but you'll still potentially have had an entry stamp put in your passport, which kinda gets weird... Pre-Clearance essentially creates this thing where the US basically says "you'll be allowed into the US upon landing, because we already checked you", but also "you're not in the US, until you're in the US". The result is that if you're denied entry at the US Border, you get a 5 year travel ban to the US. But if you're denied entry at Pre-Clearance, then that doesn't apply, because you're legally not at the US border...
I was about to comment that I had to go through US customs in Toronto before flying to the US. Then I was restricted to a little corner of the airport that only had flights to the US.
@Lafv Dublin Airport has a section which they can close off, when there's flights to the US, but that's to prevent people from getting to those gates without going through Pre-Clearance first. However, that part of Dublin Airport also can be opened up again when the US flights have all left for the day, and they can open it up for flights to Europe and the Middle East.
What happens when you arrive in the US? Do you get a special lane for pre-cleared people at the airport and some sort of pass that says you've complied with the procedure?
When Romanian (as of right now not in Schengen area) trains cross borders, a police officer simply hops on the train at the last stop before the border, checks everyone's passport, then a police officer from the other country does the same thing at the first station after the border. It's as simple as it gets and it works. Sometimes there are cars that only go to the border town and those disconnect there.
@@Neophlegm Before the time the stations got secluded area for eurostar passengers, The police officers just got on the train and checked passengers before arriving to Calai. And if you were denied, they just debarked you there. Of course, that was not doable long term, so they just started checking you at the stations, but that was quite expensive and made verry difficult to add nex stations to the system. It took years to Amsterdam to be ready for this. Before, passengers had to disembark at brussels and go through security at Brussels South station
Right? I've never been to Romania, but I've travelled through Europe before the Schengen Area was implemented in many places. I remember the pre-check done at Geneva before boarding TGV. And also Passport control agents boarding the train in Austria before crossing into another country, checking everyone's documents. They would even check luggage "randomly" inside the train, if there was any suspicion of wrong doing."
@@Neophlegm It's not a "speedy cop" kinda thing. As I remember, border patrol would come in pairs. One would enter the front door of the car, and the other came through the back door. They would work their way, checking every passenger and meet in the middle. First stop after the border, they'd get out and board the next train, opposite direction.
Yeah, this video simply decided to ignore that cross-border train trips exist in the whole world (and were even more prevalent in Europe before Schengen) and they are a non-issue. I suppose this was only an issue on the Eurostar because they decided not to check at the border as usual
@@TravelSignal They don't. I thought so as well, but if you go to the Eurostar website and try to buy a ticket, you won't find any available trains from Brussels to Lille Europe.
Big misinformation about Schengen! Even though there are usually no border controls, you still need a valid passport or id when leaving your home country. In your home country you might not be required to have that with you (e.g. Germany). In most cases that might not matter but if you happen to get in contact with the police that might become pretty relevant.
And also Article 67 of the TFEU allows any EU citzen freedom of movement within the Union. While they can establish passport controls, the UK couldn't keep out Europeans (because our food is too tasty)
@@UwePieper I was refering to the beginning of the video, where he states that the UK being in the EU but not Schengen at the time, prevented Europeans from traveling to the UK. It did not.
On high-speed trains between St.Petersburg and Helsinki (while these were a thing) they simply did border control right on the train, while it was moving towards the border.
It makes so much more sense. Eurostar's security takes ages to pass, at that point flying (which is both cheaper, more flexible and faster) is often the more attractive option. Even pets are not allowed and you're limited to two bags, why bother then? Don't get me wrong I love high-speed trains, but for Eurostar everything you can do wrong, they do do wrong.
@@martinzihlmann822 Flying is definitely not faster for London to Paris/Brussels if you're going from city center to city center. London to Amsterdam is less competitive since the train takes about 4 hours from end to end. I'm also not sure in what circumstance Eurostar is _less_ flexible than flying.
One thing you're missing in this explanation is why juxtaposed border controls were actually introduced. In Eurostar's early years the border check was done on the train while it was moving across the channel into/out of London, as has been the standard way to do border checks on trains in Europe before Schengen became a thing. The actual reason the UK started requiring people to go through border checks before boarding the train, is for a hypothetical fear that an asylum seeker could hop onto the train, then before border guards get to their carriage, pull the emergency brakes and simply run off the train and into Kent. Something that's practically impossible anyway due to fencing around the UK's HSL 1.
Lille resident and Brussel worker here! First, I had no idea the "Lille loophole" had a name, thanks for the video. With the original Alstom rolling stock, it was possible to go through the "Intra-Schengen terminal" at Brussels Midi to bypass the border control; the travellers to Lille would be stacked in the last carriage of the train (with no access to the toilets). The new Siemens rolling stock does not allow this since those carriages were designed to be the Business Premier ones. Ever since Covid, Eurostar blocked all sales of any Brussels to Lille ticket. You can see them on the booking apps (like SNCF Connect) as non-bookable. This is actually a major problem for the cross-border workers like me since we do not have a direct route from Brussels to Lille after 18:17 (before 2022 it was 19:17). Basically, I either have to stay overnight, take an unreliable regional train with a connection for 2 hours or take a long distance bus if I need to stay late in Brussels.
There is a border for people who are neither citizens of Ireland or the UK though. Busses will semi-regularly get stopped at the border and people will be asked for passports or proof of being an Irish or UK citizen
He doesn’t mention the “Common Travel Area”. Most of Ireland is not in the UK. There is nothing wrong with his map. The CTA is not relevant to this topic, it would just add confusion.
Garda are policing busses moving south and putting people crossing a land border on a boat with in a day, so it depends which direction you are crossing it, and the means you seem to have.
You couldn't then either, but Belgium had a season ticket that for some legal reason entitled you to ride any train, so they were obliged to let people with that ticket through to go to Lille. Obviously making that illegal would've also fixed the problem, but was too difficult iirc. A British journalist entered his own country illegally to report the story once with that trick, but this is years old.
Don't forget preclearance airports in Canada where you can clear US Customs on Canadian soil so you can make domestic connections in the United States. I think Dublin may have one, too.
I took the Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver and this was pretty seamless. At the last US stop they opened all the bathrooms, required everyone to be in their seat, and walked the train checking passports. Actual immigration was on the Canada side of the border - the train arrives at a disembark-only platform that funnels all passengers to immigration. Why wouldn’t that work here? That’s basically how it works at an airport
How many Amtrak are arriving per hour and how many departing transit trains from this same hub per hour? I bet Amtrak has maybe one or 2 routes a day and I'm sure train transit isn't as big in west cananda as it is in Europe or the UK. Apparently the London station sees about 24 trains per hour for local transit and about 40 trains per day from Eurostar. It's just far too much throughout to stop all those people and check them all in a reasonable timeframe without having to hire too many people. The Eurostar can also hold up to 900 passengers at once. That's double most long haul international flights and this is only a 2 hour train ride from Paris.
Eurostar is in its own terminal at St. Pancras - so the other trains using the station don't come into play. That said, it is still quite the zoo and the immigration/security checks are crammed into a small place. But even so, they do a pretty good job managing the chaos with timed access to immigration, a waiting hall, then timed access to the train platform. I like taking the Eurostar (to Lille, funnily enough).
@@doggfite It's not unmanageable in the least. Here's a simple way: you get a tag. Whether it's a picture of an RFID you produce later, a ticket, whatever. When you get to the destination, you don't get through without presenting it. It ain't hard in the least, stupid people in charge just seem allergic to the obviously better way to do things. And no, you don't need humans to do it - just taking video of the exiting area and recording if someone scanned a valid pass is enough. You got them on video entering illegally, snatch them up later..
UK immigration policy is dumb in general. But restricting passengers not leaving the Schengen Area to a single car seems like a reasonable solution IMHO.
Agreed. I don't know why the outrage. They're on the same car, and the "special security" likely means a minimum wage security guard at the exits to other cars. Seems pretty straight forward. There's higher security for someone in Economy to use the first class bathrooms on a plane.
Why don't they just make a completely different set of physical trains that just go back and forth between UK and France? It'd essentially be a connecting train.
@@ddawg789 "There's higher security for someone in Economy to use the first class bathrooms on a plane." In the US economy passengers may use the first class lavatory on domestic flights and outbound international flights . On inbound international flights passengers are required to stay in their cabins thanks to FAA regulations.
Basically there is only one high speed rail (HSR) station in Hong Kong, and all trains are traveling into mainland China alone. So instead of setting up passport control along every station that train will stop in China, they decided to just have immigration control of HK and China in the station (in central HK, nowhere near the border). On the other hand, there is another land border (Shenzhen Bay Port) where both HK and China passport control are set up deep(ish) inside the China side of the border. There is also the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, where you can travel from Hong Kong to Macao via a motorway bridge over Chinese water. Allegedly Chinese police set up roadblock over Chinese water and arrested HK protesters when they are not intending to travel into China...
I went through that border when I went to china, it's nothing special. You just go through border control before getting on the train, instead of after getting off
@@ArchOfWinterbecause it was done as a juxtaposed border, not a precheck. The mainland agents potentially have the right to arrest people at that border. But it has since became an irrelevant concern anyways.
3:53 There are also a lot of US American "Pre-Clearance Facilities" located in many airports in Canada, Ireland, and Abu Dhabi (for some reason). US CBP officers are stationed there, ans when you take a plane fron Ireland to the US, xou can just walk right into the domestic terminal.
Came here to say this. Love your content HAI (and Wendover) but you've made a pretty big boo boo on this one. The United States has border clearance stations overseas in 6 different countries at 15 different airports. Read at all about it here: www.cbp.gov/travel/preclearance
Eurostar also used to go down to southern France, I travelled down to Marseille and back once. What they did then was once you got to Lille, they turfed everybody off so you went through passport control and had your tickets checked to make sure you were (re-)entering the UK legally.
Disney did that on their monorail trains quite successfully for many years. It was possible to buy a monorail ticket without park admission, so there was a dial above each door to either lock or unlock the doors when it stopped in the park.
Fun fact: If you take the train from Singapore to Malaysia across the Woodlands Causeway, you have Malaysian immigration on the Singapore side, but you don't have Singapore Immigration on the Malaysian side.
I'm assuming you're not British so I need to do some educating about this because it's more complicated than that makes it sound. Brexit was extremely controversial, beyond what other countries probably heard. The fact that it happened isn't because everyone in parliament agreed with it - it's because of some rich Conservative ministers (and prime ministers...) who'd benefit pushing it through with vague ideas of what "Brexit" would actually entail. This went on for YEARS with MPs fighting about what should happen. The problem is, there wasn't an option to back out because it had been decided by the politicians who wanted Brexit that the people wanted Brexit and so you had to power through the bad deals and not back away from Brexit or else you hate the British citizens, basically. And by this point, many years later, after it being in the news constantly for years, with everyone just accepting that we're going to get fucked over and no one can have a new referendum on anything to do with Brexit or the type of deal we could have, after so many prime ministers and elections... people just stopped caring, no matter how passionate they were to begin with. That includes MPs. What happened was basically out of all of our collective hands and in the hands of Boris Johnson et al. Not all of parliament. And that's completely changed now, regardless. We have a Labour government for the first time in ages, and they're different when it comes to Brexit, the EU, Europe, etc. And even the general consensus has changed here: most people think that Brexit was a bad thing, even if they voted for it. It wasn't how some people thought it would go when they voted ("hard Brexit" completely cutting off the continent vs "soft Brexit" negotiating deals to compromise on some points), and even if it went exactly how they wanted, they can understand why it was such a bad idea now. A lot of people just don't discuss it anymore though. It's still too fraught with emotions and I think everyone has been thoroughly Brexited out. But the tides are really changing, and since the war in Ukraine, a survey has shown that the majority of Brits want more connection and support with the mainland (including potentially reversing Brexit) - and vice versa. I get that the UK has done some bad things, but this video was just wrong, *and* an excuse to hate on the UK. And while your comment isn't incorrect, it is lacking a lot of nuance and a lot of up-to-date information that changes the perspective on it all. I'm a staunch remainer, I have been long before Brexit, but I also accept that there was a lot of stuff out of our control, both as the laypeople non-politicians, and as British people in general. The decisions weren't even made by all the MPs. You can say "yeah but op is still right and you're just sad about Brexit" and yeah, you're not wrong. But I'm also just fed up with the lack of knowledge about how Brexit actually went down, and when non-British people talk about it like we're all stupid and all collectively wanted Brexit. People were literally lied to, manipulated, promised impossible things by rich Tories and UKIPpers. While the truth was available to them and being shown to them, people are always going to cling to what they want more. And instead of the status quo, people wanted what Boris Johnson and company said. More money to the NHS, more money per person, more jobs, less bureaucracy, the feeling of more control and importance on our own issues. The fact that all these were lies and people were being manipulated didn't matter when the status quo doesn't feel like it benefits you. What people were actually having a problem with was the Tories, but of course the Tories would blame everything on the EU. Anyway, I know I wrote a literal essay on this, but I just want the UK to not be hated on for a stupid thing that everyone disagrees with now, and a lot of people disagreed with while it was happening. Sorry for all this. Merry Christmas lmao
should probably get back to managing your decline-cum-collapse. and for the record, most of your current problems began with Blair, not the Tories of the 2010's who hadn't the spine to right the boat. Perhaps you'll learn a thing or two from Argentina. As an American, i have zero interest in bailing you all out yet again. At all.
@@CrumpleZone You have no idea what you're talking about. Almost every metric from homelessness rates, cost of living and NHS waiting lists was lower under the previous labour government, because Tory austerity has broken nearly every public service. Also, when exactly was the last time the US bailed the UK out? We had food rationing into the mid 1950s because unlike almost every other allied/occupied country we actually paid off our lend lease in full.
Here's a (extremely minor and technical) mistake! 4:34 says "Saint Pancras". The name of the area, and the international train station, is St Pancras. Only a few, specific, extremely old things (like the old cemetery) write Saint as opposed to St.
Another example of juxtaposed controls is USA immigration checkpoints at airports in Aruba, Canada, and Ireland. Kinda nice being able to disembark a transatlantic flight and go straight to baggage claim. I would've thought Eurostar services would be limited to cross-tunnel trips, i.e. nobody disembarks before crossing the tunnel. That way everyone gets checked. There are other services that can take you from Brussels to Lille.
I'm not pooing your comment but those are not technically juxtaposed because Canada, Aruba, and Ireland don't have the same prescreening in US airports (which would also be awesome by the way).
Yes, pre-clearance of U.S. border control existed in Canada long before the Channel Tunnel. It allows flights from Canada to go to domestic gates in the U.S. airports; some of which are too small to even have customs.
@@TreeStump-and-CheeseKetchupIT Yeah that's valid. There are no formal outbound controls in the US, though, so implementing that here would be trickier than it would be in other countries.
@@mrdisco99Preclearance countries are welcome to open their equivalent in America, but no single US airport generates enough traffic for a government to rent out a chunk of terminal and pay for sending their own immigration and customs officers to staff it.
1:46 the Schengen zone map is outdated - Croatia is a full member for some time now and Bulgarian and Romania are partly members already and will be full members just days after the release of the video.
This complicated (and functional) four nation international rail network is one hell of a thing to throw stones at from your glass house across the pond.
@ same here, I had bought a massive tub of maple butter and the Canadian security let me through but then I got to US Customs and Border Protection and that was gone before you could say "3.4 or out the door"
I've never heard anyone but (now 2) Americans refer to the channel tunnel as Chunnel. On the French side it's mostly synonymous with Le Shuttle, Brits call it The Channel Tunnel, most know it as The Eurotunnel or whatever the local translation for "tunnel under/of Canal La Manche" is (as The Channel is a particularly British name for the canal). There's a single reference on wiki page to an article from 94' which had "Chunnel" in the headline but mentioned it nowhere else in the article. Imo, *Chunnel* as a word is up there alongside *moist* *phlegm* or *chunder* , it has that vibe. Like a by-word for something you'd throw up into. As far as pet names and wordplay goes, this one is a little unfortunate. 😅
@@mattttmillerr it was called the Chunnel in the very early days when it was being built. But everyone I know calls it the channel tunnel or Eurostar, even if the latter is only true if you get the sit down train from London not the one you drive your car into.
Juxtaposed controls exist at every major Canadian airport and some ferry terminals under the name "pre-border clearance". If you fly from Calgary to Houston or LA, you go through US customs at the Calgary airport. US customs also handles pre-border clearance at airports in Ireland, Bermuda, and a few other places.
Someone in another comment explained that they aren’t the same thing. Juxtaposed border controls mean you’ve technically already crossed the border while in the other country and pre-border clearance just means you’ve been okayed to cross the border once you arrive. Also, if your flight or train is cancelled and you leave the airport/station, with juxtaposed border controls you have to cross the border again, but not with pre-border clearance because you never technically left that country to begin with.
That video is weirdly wrong. As a EU citizen I was allowed to enter british soil while they have been a EU member state even though they might not have been part of Schengen. Schengen only means that there are no border controls between Schengen members. While within the EU I always have to be able to identify myself which can be done via Passport, ID Card or (not always) Drivers License. And as far as I'm aware most EU countries require at least ID Card. That's why I have been to the UK twice without having a valid passport at the time, where the only downside was that border controls with ID cards were not automated, so I actually needed to show up at a border partrol guard showing my ID card, instead of simply scanning my Passport at a machine. (Although this mostly applied to airport border patrols afaik). And finally now that UK left the EU I actually require a Passport, because my European ID card is not sufficient anymore as entry allowance.
Yes, but whereas anyone can travel between Belgium and France, only some people are allowed to travel between France and England, and they need to do the passport check to ensure that you are an EU citizen and therefore one of the people who is allowed to cross the border.
Side note: the Buenos Aires ferry port is not in Burzaco or wherever that dot was placed! it's within the City of Buenos Aires, the smaller area you can see separated from the Province!
A train-related example: At Pacific Central (the train station in Vancouver) you clear customs first on Amtrak trains to the US - then you board the train from a platform completely fenced off from all other platforms... once in the US - it operates like any other Amtrak train...
Confused as to why they don’t have the checkpoint between Calais and the UK. Obviously the only people travelling in the Chanel tunnel are people entering or leaving from/to the UK/ Europe?
Before Shengen, it was quite common to have border checks on trains. Slower ones simply stopped at border, everyone get checked. But high category trains, did not stop. Officers get on train in last stop in country, checked on route everyone and then get off on first stop in second country. Train did not stop anywhere in between.
I think a lot of the info in here is mistaken. First you cite an article (threat of arrests by Belgian police of British officers) which dates back to 2011 when Britain was still part of the EU. Also as far as I know, you cannot actually buy a ticket to a Schengen station if the train is going to the UK and you need to show your passport. In any case in most EU countries you cannot just go around without an ID. in fact if you intend to stay over 3 months in many places you need to register and be able to sustain yourself
Switzerland is in Schengen, which theoretically should allow people to travel freely, but it's not in the EU's customs area, which makes any goods that those freely travelling people are carrying liable for search.
@@exsandgrounder You can, after leaving the plane, choose if you want to take the France / Germany exit, or the Swiss one. So if you had something that you could freely transport in the EU but not in Switzerland, just take the EU exit and drive from the french side to Switzerland
@@exsandgrounder but they do seem to pick and choose who to stop and search. We used to live there and went to France every day just bc and they would let us thru (UK registered car and all) without stopping, but others they would constantly stop. We would get glared at bc of it. Hubby said he thinks he's on some kind of free pass list (or whatever you want to call it) that lets us go wherever in the EU and associated areas that we want, as long as he's with us. If it's just me, it wouldn't be allowed bc I'm from Canada, so...
3:50 There's an interesting fact about the trains there. The train carriages and platforms are Chinese controlled, but the train depot is not. So when a train comes from the depot, hong kong border control checks the train staff out (maybe at the depot, I'm not sure) and chinese border control checks them in on the platform, and then the train becomes chinese. There are also hong kong border controls in mainland China, specifically Shenzhen Bay Checkpoint and soon Huanggang Checkpoint, but I guess they're closer to the border.
I was once on a train between Switzerland and Italy and they had officials walking around checking passports and tickets on the train. I don't know how long the train ride is between stations, but they could check tickets in that time, arresting anyone who doesn't have one, and checking the passports of anyone who does have a ticket. I don't know the specific laws, but something like "arresting"/"confining" anyone who isn't suppose to be on the train, could maybe disqualify them from claiming refugee status. If that isn't possible legally, then they can try to get the checks done as quick as possible, so they can be kicked off the train at the last stop before the UK.
Sam: PLANES! Nah, you gotta do something else TRAINS! Nah, somethingelse AIRPORTS! Nah, that's related to planes FINE, I'll do Logistics of PLANES,TRAINS AND AIRPORTS. But wait, also airport security, route planning, pricing of trains and planes, route scheduling and just some other videos 1 in 20 videos to check if his gambling on just these videos do work out (yes, it's a reference to the gambling/insurance video
I had seen a very strange loophole to enter EU without ever needing to have a visa back in 2018. I was travelling(Using my Indian passport) from Glasgow to Mumbai; my flight was Glasgow - Dublin (Aer Lingus) and Dublin - Abu Dhabi (Etihad) - and Abu Dhabi - Mumbai (Etihad). When I boarded the plane from Glasgow, there was no immigration check to enter Dublin. When I reached the Dublin International Airport, there was no way to get and 'exit' stamp anywhere. If I had any tickets to any cheap flights flying to any EU country; I could have boarded that and entered EU without any Visa. I had a UK Tourist Visa, which had nowhere mentioned that I could enter Republic of Ireland(EU Region). I literally had to notify the airport authorities and get my exit stamp. They asked me to 'exit' the airport through the 'Arrivals' gate and 'enter' through the 'Departures' gate. nobody came with me for this procedure. I could have easily entered Dublin. Anyways, I got myself an 'exit' stamp from Ireland and then I boarded my Abu Dhabi flight, just to keep the things simple; and to have a proof of legal exit from the Europe.
1:55 You're forgetting the Common Travel Area between the UK & Ireland So, in some ways, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is also just for fun
2/3 of all EU border crossings are in Ireland, and they are very invisible, just a sign saying "Speed limits in km/h" if you are entering Ireland or "Speed limits in mph" if you are entering Northern Ireland.
On British trains there are ticket inspectors. They walk along the length of the train to ensure everyone has a valid ticket. Why not have visa/passport inspectors who walk along the train, checking the person has the necessary passport/visa. If they don't then they are put in a detention carriage, and are handed over to the French visa/passport inspectors on the return train.
I can't actually think of a better solution, except just reversing it, those who want to stay in the Schengen can move freely and thone going to the UK are separated, if there's more domestic travellers than international ones
@@declanomalley7914 No, OP is right. The proportions are all off, so the inverted red and white saltires look wrong because their white fimbriation is in the wrong place.
This video is wrong - as far as I know some passports are (were?) checked at arrival at St Pancras; the Marne-la-Vallée - Chessy (Disneyland) services didn’t have juxtaposed controls. It meant French immigration is performed at Marne la Vallée Chessy, while UK Immigration takes place on arrival at St Pancras.
What if every twelth person who buys a ticket to Lille is forced to participate in a British Squid games where the prize is a British passport. This will certainly discourage people from wanting to become British.
As it looks now Eurostar will stop going to NL soon. The high speed rail was built with such bad quality that trains are only allowed to go 70km/h to ensure the walls don't cave in, making it impossible for Eurostar to run a timely schedule. Thanks ProRail!
The animation made it look like the british dug the whole way from their end, but it's much cooler than that. The tunnel was dug from both sides, meeting in the middle.
There's a great photo of an English worker and French worker shaking hands through the hole when they met
you know what they say, you aim for the moon and if you miss etc etc... if they missed each other they'll just end up with 2 tunnels... literally can't lose lol
and here we have one thing for thi years hai mistakes
The French gave their machines names and brought them back when the project was finished.
The English didn't and made them burrow when they were done.
Technically the British dug a little big further as the French side had tougher rock to dig through.
So original plans needed revised and the British agreed to dig further at the cost of the French.
I’ve taken the eurostar several times and you can just walk through the entire length of the train, nobody’s stopping you. They just don’t sell tickets between destinations within Schengen on trains bound to the UK. Those ‘separate cars’ are actually completely different trains that don’t go through the channel tunnel.
I did wonder about this but at Brussels to board a Euro star train can't not go through passport control. So I guess you can't go from Brussels to Lille on Euro star.
@@hublanderuk You can, you would buy a ticket to e.g. London from Brussels, pass the passport control. And then get off in Lille. Stupid if you do, but technically possible.
@@houghi3826would that get you a Schengen exit stamp on your passport? If so, it could be a way to illegally overstay?
@@houghi3826my american brain cannot process this public transit
its usually an end car and for amsterdam-brussels its the entire front 8 cars, been on it enough to see it, eurostar red doesnt really go to lille anymore so london trains are the only ones to connect brussels to lille
This video is just...wrong? At least the ending is. You can't buy a ticket to travel from Paris or Brussels to Lille on a train that is bound for London. Same thing on the UK side, where you can't ride the Eurostar between London St. Pancras and Ashford Int'l (which tbf hasn't had an Eurostar stop since 2020). Those stations are boarding / alighting only, depending on which direction you're travelling in.
So the solution isn't to have border guards patrolling cars as shown in the video here, it's that you can't use a London bound train for a journey within the Schengen area.
Source: I've taken the Eurostar like 40 times at this point.
It used to be like that. We used to take Eurostar between Brussels and Calais often, and it worked as described like in the video. Also not mentioned is that in Bruxelles-Midi you would board the train from different “terminals” depending on your destination: the big branded Eurostar terminal (with border checks) if you’re going to the UK, or a small access in a side corridor if going to France
At at least one occasion my dad was the only passenger and it was the last train of the day, so a security staff member had to stay with him in awkward silence all the way to Calais only to take a 2h taxi ride back to Brussels afterwards
It changed at some point in the 2020s, although I don’t remember if it’s after Covid or after Eurostar changed their operations with the Thalys takeover and the services to Amsterdam
Dear hai, pls put me in the mistakes video when showing this
Yeah everything about this video is wrong. Really poor.
Would agree, and you have that border check at St Pancras when arriving in London. Just had this last week. Though, with 2 late trains, they ended up ditching the passport checks x)
@moritzl7065 silly you, letting the facts get in the way of a HAI video having a dig at Britain.
1:40 The highlighted Schengen area is missing Croatia, which became a full Schengen member on 01.01.2023.
Bulgaria and Romania too are becoming Schegen members?
as a croatian, i wondered why is it not there
Also Romania and Bulgaria
@ivpt Which will only become full members of the Schengen area in a week (1.1.2025).
Literally unwatchable.
5:42 hey! That’s me!
It's you!
Hi you!
Looking good in the vid
Man you are famous 🎉
*Wheeze*
5:26 this is completely incorrect. You cannot buy a ticket from Brussels to Lille for a train that runs to London. You can only travel on trains that remain on mainland Europe. On the Brussels to London trains, Lille is a pick-up only stop.
Yes, and there are French and UK immigration checks there if you want to board that service. We caught the train from Lyon and changed to the Eurostar at Lille to go onto London. As Australian passport holders we had to go through both lots of immigration. There were about 30 pax making the transfer, the train arrived about 7 minutes late, there was only one French immigration official (surprise?!), at least there was 4 or 5 officials at the UK desk. This caused the Eurostar to leave Lille about 10 minutes late which meant that it was unable to use the fast rail track from Dover, so we arrived in London 15+ minutes late. Fun times!
@@aubreyadams7884 fast track from Dover? Don't you mean you were stuck behind a shuttle train? That's much more likely
@ no Dover to London, we were coming from Lille. Our Eurostar was late so it was announced that we’d missed our scheduled slot on the high speed track to St Pancreas and had to be re-routed which meant the service lost more time.
@aubreyadams7884 except that the third rail capability of Eurostar was removed years ago. It runs solely on overhead power. 25kv and 1500v (around Brussels)
There is no other line to divert to. HS1 is the only line in South East England that uses overhead power.
@@hairyairey ok, whatever. All I’m saying is about 10 years ago our train from Lyon was late, the hold up going through immigration at Lille (which is what this video is all about) exacerbated that, causing our Eurostar to be further delayed and it was announced that we’d we missed our scheduled slot and we’d be taking a slower route. So whatever that means is really of no interest to me.
3:33 You missed a whole bunch of (ETA: at least partially) juxtaposed controls. US CBP has 15 "preclearance" checkpoints, where CBP officials have US immigration & customs checkpoints in a foreign country, in Dublin and Shannon in Ireland; Aruba; Bermuda; Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates; Nassau in the Bahamas; and Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg in Canada.
I was going to say this. I've been through two of these, myself.
It's only half-juxtaposed though, since there's no reciprocal preclearance with the partner nations.
@colaxxi Fair. At least, I'm not aware of any other country having border control on US territory. Maybe someone will respond correcting us.
The agreements are reciprocal, but so far no country has decided to do pre-clearance in the US
@supersat Interesting. According to Public Safety Canada, the US-Canada preclearance agreement is in place since 1952, and it's currently bilateral under treaty E105453, Agreement on Land, Rail, Marine and Air Transport Preclearance between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States. I've not tried to look up all the other countries' versions. It does indeed seem like Canada just never acted on using their rights to have Canadian preclearance in the US. I wonder why (and whether Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Ireland, & UAE have the same situation & reasons).
3:45 also the US border control in UAE, Ireland or Canada airports
Pre-Clearance is kinda it's own legal mess.
What Juxtaposed Controls does is that you end up legally leaving the UK or Schengen Zone, and enter the other. Meaning if your train (or ferry) is cancelled, you have to go through passport control again.
For Pre-Clearance, it's kinda stupid. If your flight is cancelled, then you'll never have legally left Ireland, Canada or the UAE, but you'll still potentially have had an entry stamp put in your passport, which kinda gets weird...
Pre-Clearance essentially creates this thing where the US basically says "you'll be allowed into the US upon landing, because we already checked you", but also "you're not in the US, until you're in the US".
The result is that if you're denied entry at the US Border, you get a 5 year travel ban to the US. But if you're denied entry at Pre-Clearance, then that doesn't apply, because you're legally not at the US border...
I was about to comment that I had to go through US customs in Toronto before flying to the US. Then I was restricted to a little corner of the airport that only had flights to the US.
Also, the US controls are very much unilateral and sometimes are not even really welcomed by the hosting country.
@@Lafvand that’s not just in Toronto, also Vancouver, and presumably other airports with direct flights to the USA
@Lafv Dublin Airport has a section which they can close off, when there's flights to the US, but that's to prevent people from getting to those gates without going through Pre-Clearance first.
However, that part of Dublin Airport also can be opened up again when the US flights have all left for the day, and they can open it up for flights to Europe and the Middle East.
Also in Canada you can clear US customs before boarding your flight to the US. Did it once in Vancouver.
Ditto with US Customs on some Caribbean islands
What happens when you arrive in the US? Do you get a special lane for pre-cleared people at the airport and some sort of pass that says you've complied with the procedure?
@@exsandgrounder You arrive at a gate that doesn't have customs between the gate and the door, like taking a domestic flight.
@@exsandgrounderyou arrive at the domestic terminal.
Yup, did that in Winnepeg, Manitoba many years ago. But also Canada is apparently gonna be our 51st state so it's a moot point. /s
“Ha you fools I was secretly a desperate refugee”
-Sam from HAI
Best stereotype of what right wingers think
He's just got himself an Irish passport, so the gammons won't like him.
nice to know there are still some youtubers left who believe refugees are human people
@@user-op8fg3ny3j Right-wingers don't think
@@user-op8fg3ny3jYou are right. They aren't refugees, but immigrants.
Shengen-anigans?
out! --> You and your dad jokes. Out! And don't come back until; you have milk.
😂
ed hescht schengen
1:41 somebody please tell Sam that Croatia has been in the Schengen for almost two years now
Also Bulgaria and Romania kinda but not for 2 years
@@MrJakubina Haha yeah, just for 27 hours as of my comment :P
Tell ben, he wrote the video
When Romanian (as of right now not in Schengen area) trains cross borders, a police officer simply hops on the train at the last stop before the border, checks everyone's passport, then a police officer from the other country does the same thing at the first station after the border. It's as simple as it gets and it works. Sometimes there are cars that only go to the border town and those disconnect there.
One of the Eurostars has 894 seats. Need to be a speedy cop...
@@Neophlegm Before the time the stations got secluded area for eurostar passengers, The police officers just got on the train and checked passengers before arriving to Calai. And if you were denied, they just debarked you there. Of course, that was not doable long term, so they just started checking you at the stations, but that was quite expensive and made verry difficult to add nex stations to the system. It took years to Amsterdam to be ready for this. Before, passengers had to disembark at brussels and go through security at Brussels South station
Right? I've never been to Romania, but I've travelled through Europe before the Schengen Area was implemented in many places. I remember the pre-check done at Geneva before boarding TGV. And also Passport control agents boarding the train in Austria before crossing into another country, checking everyone's documents. They would even check luggage "randomly" inside the train, if there was any suspicion of wrong doing."
@@Neophlegm It's not a "speedy cop" kinda thing. As I remember, border patrol would come in pairs. One would enter the front door of the car, and the other came through the back door. They would work their way, checking every passenger and meet in the middle. First stop after the border, they'd get out and board the next train, opposite direction.
Yeah, this video simply decided to ignore that cross-border train trips exist in the whole world (and were even more prevalent in Europe before Schengen) and they are a non-issue. I suppose this was only an issue on the Eurostar because they decided not to check at the border as usual
It's a moot point now as you can no longer use eurostar to travel from Brussells to Lille. However you can still make the reverse journey.
Actually Eurostar just doesn't sell tickets from Brussels to Lille. They do sell tickets from Lille to Brussels but not the other way around
Actually, since the merger with Thalys, they do.
@@TravelSignal At least not on the trains to London
@@TravelSignal Also the trains taken over from Thalys go from Brussels to Paris nonstop
@@TravelSignal They don't. I thought so as well, but if you go to the Eurostar website and try to buy a ticket, you won't find any available trains from Brussels to Lille Europe.
@@TravelSignalthey don’t, thalystar doesn’t run to Lille
Big misinformation about Schengen! Even though there are usually no border controls, you still need a valid passport or id when leaving your home country. In your home country you might not be required to have that with you (e.g. Germany). In most cases that might not matter but if you happen to get in contact with the police that might become pretty relevant.
And also Article 67 of the TFEU allows any EU citzen freedom of movement within the Union. While they can establish passport controls, the UK couldn't keep out Europeans (because our food is too tasty)
@xenon9030 UK is neither part of Schengen nor the EU (remember Brexit)
@@UwePieper I was refering to the beginning of the video, where he states that the UK being in the EU but not Schengen at the time, prevented Europeans from traveling to the UK. It did not.
@@xenon9030 Yeah, okay 😊 that was right 😅
You don't need a passport, an ID card is enough.
On high-speed trains between St.Petersburg and Helsinki (while these were a thing) they simply did border control right on the train, while it was moving towards the border.
I think trains from Seattle, WA to Vancouver, BC handle border control the same way.
That's how most border checks on international trains in the world function, and is the sensible way of doing it.
They do the same thing on the Thalys (Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris). Although borders there are just for fun, so it only happens occasionally.
It makes so much more sense. Eurostar's security takes ages to pass, at that point flying (which is both cheaper, more flexible and faster) is often the more attractive option. Even pets are not allowed and you're limited to two bags, why bother then? Don't get me wrong I love high-speed trains, but for Eurostar everything you can do wrong, they do do wrong.
@@martinzihlmann822 Flying is definitely not faster for London to Paris/Brussels if you're going from city center to city center. London to Amsterdam is less competitive since the train takes about 4 hours from end to end.
I'm also not sure in what circumstance Eurostar is _less_ flexible than flying.
One thing you're missing in this explanation is why juxtaposed border controls were actually introduced. In Eurostar's early years the border check was done on the train while it was moving across the channel into/out of London, as has been the standard way to do border checks on trains in Europe before Schengen became a thing.
The actual reason the UK started requiring people to go through border checks before boarding the train, is for a hypothetical fear that an asylum seeker could hop onto the train, then before border guards get to their carriage, pull the emergency brakes and simply run off the train and into Kent. Something that's practically impossible anyway due to fencing around the UK's HSL 1.
that seems odd we have juxtaposed controls for ferry crossings around the straights and you don't want to go jumping off of them.
Lille resident and Brussel worker here!
First, I had no idea the "Lille loophole" had a name, thanks for the video.
With the original Alstom rolling stock, it was possible to go through the "Intra-Schengen terminal" at Brussels Midi to bypass the border control; the travellers to Lille would be stacked in the last carriage of the train (with no access to the toilets). The new Siemens rolling stock does not allow this since those carriages were designed to be the Business Premier ones.
Ever since Covid, Eurostar blocked all sales of any Brussels to Lille ticket. You can see them on the booking apps (like SNCF Connect) as non-bookable.
This is actually a major problem for the cross-border workers like me since we do not have a direct route from Brussels to Lille after 18:17 (before 2022 it was 19:17).
Basically, I either have to stay overnight, take an unreliable regional train with a connection for 2 hours or take a long distance bus if I need to stay late in Brussels.
The border of the UK shown at 1:50 is not where border controls are. The whole island of Ireland is included in the "Common Travel Area"
Shhh. Facts.
There is a border for people who are neither citizens of Ireland or the UK though. Busses will semi-regularly get stopped at the border and people will be asked for passports or proof of being an Irish or UK citizen
He doesn’t mention the “Common Travel Area”. Most of Ireland is not in the UK. There is nothing wrong with his map. The CTA is not relevant to this topic, it would just add confusion.
Garda are policing busses moving south and putting people crossing a land border on a boat with in a day, so it depends which direction you are crossing it, and the means you seem to have.
5:31 no they don't, you just can't buy a ticket on the blue eurostars to lille from other cities anymore.
You couldn't then either, but Belgium had a season ticket that for some legal reason entitled you to ride any train, so they were obliged to let people with that ticket through to go to Lille. Obviously making that illegal would've also fixed the problem, but was too difficult iirc. A British journalist entered his own country illegally to report the story once with that trick, but this is years old.
HAI didn't have enough material to put in the "mistakes" video, so they made an entire video for it.
Never refer to it as the _'Chunnel'_ ever again, you monster.
That took me back. Very nostalgic.
Agreed, I'm British and I haven't heard that word since the 90s
Don't forget preclearance airports in Canada where you can clear US Customs on Canadian soil so you can make domestic connections in the United States. I think Dublin may have one, too.
Same with a couple spots in the Caribbean, and randomly Abu Dhabi too.
As of 2014, all flights from Dublin to the U.S. go through pre-clearance.
I took the Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver and this was pretty seamless. At the last US stop they opened all the bathrooms, required everyone to be in their seat, and walked the train checking passports. Actual immigration was on the Canada side of the border - the train arrives at a disembark-only platform that funnels all passengers to immigration. Why wouldn’t that work here? That’s basically how it works at an airport
I think government types are allergic to sensible ideas.
How many Amtrak are arriving per hour and how many departing transit trains from this same hub per hour?
I bet Amtrak has maybe one or 2 routes a day and I'm sure train transit isn't as big in west cananda as it is in Europe or the UK.
Apparently the London station sees about 24 trains per hour for local transit and about 40 trains per day from Eurostar.
It's just far too much throughout to stop all those people and check them all in a reasonable timeframe without having to hire too many people.
The Eurostar can also hold up to 900 passengers at once. That's double most long haul international flights and this is only a 2 hour train ride from Paris.
Eurostar is in its own terminal at St. Pancras - so the other trains using the station don't come into play. That said, it is still quite the zoo and the immigration/security checks are crammed into a small place. But even so, they do a pretty good job managing the chaos with timed access to immigration, a waiting hall, then timed access to the train platform. I like taking the Eurostar (to Lille, funnily enough).
@doggfite Cruise ships also checked customs
@@doggfite It's not unmanageable in the least. Here's a simple way: you get a tag. Whether it's a picture of an RFID you produce later, a ticket, whatever. When you get to the destination, you don't get through without presenting it. It ain't hard in the least, stupid people in charge just seem allergic to the obviously better way to do things. And no, you don't need humans to do it - just taking video of the exiting area and recording if someone scanned a valid pass is enough. You got them on video entering illegally, snatch them up later..
UK immigration policy is dumb in general. But restricting passengers not leaving the Schengen Area to a single car seems like a reasonable solution IMHO.
Agreed. I don't know why the outrage. They're on the same car, and the "special security" likely means a minimum wage security guard at the exits to other cars. Seems pretty straight forward. There's higher security for someone in Economy to use the first class bathrooms on a plane.
@@ddawg789 I was thinking the same thing. I don't think there is any actual outrage, I think it's just Sam being humourous.
Why don't they just make a completely different set of physical trains that just go back and forth between UK and France? It'd essentially be a connecting train.
@@Epic_C because buying extra trains cost quite a bit of money.
@@ddawg789 "There's higher security for someone in Economy to use the first class bathrooms on a plane."
In the US economy passengers may use the first class lavatory on domestic flights and outbound international flights . On inbound international flights passengers are required to stay in their cabins thanks to FAA regulations.
3:50 I feel like that mainland China part could be it's own episode.
And the Brits have a lot to learn from it
Basically there is only one high speed rail (HSR) station in Hong Kong, and all trains are traveling into mainland China alone. So instead of setting up passport control along every station that train will stop in China, they decided to just have immigration control of HK and China in the station (in central HK, nowhere near the border).
On the other hand, there is another land border (Shenzhen Bay Port) where both HK and China passport control are set up deep(ish) inside the China side of the border.
There is also the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, where you can travel from Hong Kong to Macao via a motorway bridge over Chinese water. Allegedly Chinese police set up roadblock over Chinese water and arrested HK protesters when they are not intending to travel into China...
I went through that border when I went to china, it's nothing special. You just go through border control before getting on the train, instead of after getting off
This is a whole can of political worms. While it logistically made sense, it was deeply unpopular.
@@ArchOfWinterbecause it was done as a juxtaposed border, not a precheck. The mainland agents potentially have the right to arrest people at that border.
But it has since became an irrelevant concern anyways.
I haven't heard it called the Chunnel since they finished digging it.
They called it the Chunnel a lot on TV here in the US, for many years, but we're demonstrably barbarians.
I've only heard Americans call it that tbh
Yeah literally no one calls it that, it sounds so silly
It was common until France did one of those typically French things and banned the use of "Franglais" words.
3:53 There are also a lot of US American "Pre-Clearance Facilities" located in many airports in Canada, Ireland, and Abu Dhabi (for some reason). US CBP officers are stationed there, ans when you take a plane fron Ireland to the US, xou can just walk right into the domestic terminal.
Yea, I've done flying Toronto to LA and I'm not a citizen of either country
Came here to say this. Love your content HAI (and Wendover) but you've made a pretty big boo boo on this one. The United States has border clearance stations overseas in 6 different countries at 15 different airports. Read at all about it here: www.cbp.gov/travel/preclearance
when talking about schengen at 1:48 it would've been nice to specify romania and bulgaria will join too in a few days :)
And croatia which is already a member should’ve been highlighted.
Yes my friend, but TECHNICALLY we still haven't entered, and if there's someone who will/won't do something because of a technicality, it's HAI
@nullpro7435we’ll just have wait for the next mistakes video
Romania and bulgaria are schengen members already, albeit with restrictions soon to be lifted in 2025
True JetLag fans remember the Lille incident of Season 3
Ah yes
I don’t lol. Synopsis?
@@bammanx In Season 3 of JetLag, they played Tag Across Europe and they just kept going back to Lille.
@ oh yeah, i remember now
@@Jad60ajHow that was an accident? Returning to the local hub is a normal thing.
Eurostar also used to go down to southern France, I travelled down to Marseille and back once.
What they did then was once you got to Lille, they turfed everybody off so you went through passport control and had your tickets checked to make sure you were (re-)entering the UK legally.
In Canada you often clear US border control before you get on the flight to the USA
Disney did that on their monorail trains quite successfully for many years. It was possible to buy a monorail ticket without park admission, so there was a dial above each door to either lock or unlock the doors when it stopped in the park.
2:40 And that ISN'T an airport, it's an Ohio Turnpike rest stop (AFAIK)
Glad i wasnt the only one who couldnt miss that
Wow, you really know your Auntie Anne's locations!
bro there’s like 20 mistakes in this video 😭
1:34 it is such a pain that Belgium is not yellow and the Netherlands are not orange lolol
Fun fact: If you take the train from Singapore to Malaysia across the Woodlands Causeway, you have Malaysian immigration on the Singapore side, but you don't have Singapore Immigration on the Malaysian side.
Honestly, “Are You Smarter than an MP” sounds like a great setup for a game show, even if just to watch elected officials struggle at trivia.
considering the UK Parliament implemented Brexit I'd take a stab at that game
The majority in the House of Commons has shifted though.
I'm assuming you're not British so I need to do some educating about this because it's more complicated than that makes it sound. Brexit was extremely controversial, beyond what other countries probably heard. The fact that it happened isn't because everyone in parliament agreed with it - it's because of some rich Conservative ministers (and prime ministers...) who'd benefit pushing it through with vague ideas of what "Brexit" would actually entail. This went on for YEARS with MPs fighting about what should happen. The problem is, there wasn't an option to back out because it had been decided by the politicians who wanted Brexit that the people wanted Brexit and so you had to power through the bad deals and not back away from Brexit or else you hate the British citizens, basically. And by this point, many years later, after it being in the news constantly for years, with everyone just accepting that we're going to get fucked over and no one can have a new referendum on anything to do with Brexit or the type of deal we could have, after so many prime ministers and elections... people just stopped caring, no matter how passionate they were to begin with. That includes MPs. What happened was basically out of all of our collective hands and in the hands of Boris Johnson et al. Not all of parliament.
And that's completely changed now, regardless. We have a Labour government for the first time in ages, and they're different when it comes to Brexit, the EU, Europe, etc. And even the general consensus has changed here: most people think that Brexit was a bad thing, even if they voted for it. It wasn't how some people thought it would go when they voted ("hard Brexit" completely cutting off the continent vs "soft Brexit" negotiating deals to compromise on some points), and even if it went exactly how they wanted, they can understand why it was such a bad idea now. A lot of people just don't discuss it anymore though. It's still too fraught with emotions and I think everyone has been thoroughly Brexited out. But the tides are really changing, and since the war in Ukraine, a survey has shown that the majority of Brits want more connection and support with the mainland (including potentially reversing Brexit) - and vice versa.
I get that the UK has done some bad things, but this video was just wrong, *and* an excuse to hate on the UK. And while your comment isn't incorrect, it is lacking a lot of nuance and a lot of up-to-date information that changes the perspective on it all. I'm a staunch remainer, I have been long before Brexit, but I also accept that there was a lot of stuff out of our control, both as the laypeople non-politicians, and as British people in general. The decisions weren't even made by all the MPs.
You can say "yeah but op is still right and you're just sad about Brexit" and yeah, you're not wrong. But I'm also just fed up with the lack of knowledge about how Brexit actually went down, and when non-British people talk about it like we're all stupid and all collectively wanted Brexit. People were literally lied to, manipulated, promised impossible things by rich Tories and UKIPpers. While the truth was available to them and being shown to them, people are always going to cling to what they want more. And instead of the status quo, people wanted what Boris Johnson and company said. More money to the NHS, more money per person, more jobs, less bureaucracy, the feeling of more control and importance on our own issues. The fact that all these were lies and people were being manipulated didn't matter when the status quo doesn't feel like it benefits you. What people were actually having a problem with was the Tories, but of course the Tories would blame everything on the EU.
Anyway, I know I wrote a literal essay on this, but I just want the UK to not be hated on for a stupid thing that everyone disagrees with now, and a lot of people disagreed with while it was happening. Sorry for all this. Merry Christmas lmao
should probably get back to managing your decline-cum-collapse. and for the record, most of your current problems began with Blair, not the Tories of the 2010's who hadn't the spine to right the boat. Perhaps you'll learn a thing or two from Argentina. As an American, i have zero interest in bailing you all out yet again. At all.
@@CrumpleZone
You have no idea what you're talking about. Almost every metric from homelessness rates, cost of living and NHS waiting lists was lower under the previous labour government, because Tory austerity has broken nearly every public service. Also, when exactly was the last time the US bailed the UK out? We had food rationing into the mid 1950s because unlike almost every other allied/occupied country we actually paid off our lend lease in full.
@@rosehipowl dude chill I am a Brit and I agree!
Here's a (extremely minor and technical) mistake! 4:34 says "Saint Pancras". The name of the area, and the international train station, is St Pancras. Only a few, specific, extremely old things (like the old cemetery) write Saint as opposed to St.
Another example of juxtaposed controls is USA immigration checkpoints at airports in Aruba, Canada, and Ireland. Kinda nice being able to disembark a transatlantic flight and go straight to baggage claim.
I would've thought Eurostar services would be limited to cross-tunnel trips, i.e. nobody disembarks before crossing the tunnel. That way everyone gets checked. There are other services that can take you from Brussels to Lille.
I'm not pooing your comment but those are not technically juxtaposed because Canada, Aruba, and Ireland don't have the same prescreening in US airports (which would also be awesome by the way).
Yes, pre-clearance of U.S. border control existed in Canada long before the Channel Tunnel. It allows flights from Canada to go to domestic gates in the U.S. airports; some of which are too small to even have customs.
@@TreeStump-and-CheeseKetchupIT Yeah that's valid. There are no formal outbound controls in the US, though, so implementing that here would be trickier than it would be in other countries.
@@mrdisco99Preclearance countries are welcome to open their equivalent in America, but no single US airport generates enough traffic for a government to rent out a chunk of terminal and pay for sending their own immigration and customs officers to staff it.
Love how your schengen map was obsolete within a week
1:46 the Schengen zone map is outdated - Croatia is a full member for some time now and Bulgarian and Romania are partly members already and will be full members just days after the release of the video.
This complicated (and functional) four nation international rail network is one hell of a thing to throw stones at from your glass house across the pond.
3:55 , In the Montreal airport they have US customs and border protection before you can enter the terminal.
An relatively unknown fact that I learned this summer when I almost missed my flight home.
@ same here, I had bought a massive tub of maple butter and the Canadian security let me through but then I got to US Customs and Border Protection and that was gone before you could say "3.4 or out the door"
In multiple countries, Dublin has most of an airport terminal that’s all US bound, inside customs
In Dublin they have it below the aer lingus terminal.
This is not uniquely Montreal thing. It’s fairly common
I've never heard anyone but (now 2) Americans refer to the channel tunnel as Chunnel. On the French side it's mostly synonymous with Le Shuttle, Brits call it The Channel Tunnel, most know it as The Eurotunnel or whatever the local translation for "tunnel under/of Canal La Manche" is (as The Channel is a particularly British name for the canal). There's a single reference on wiki page to an article from 94' which had "Chunnel" in the headline but mentioned it nowhere else in the article.
Imo, *Chunnel* as a word is up there alongside *moist* *phlegm* or *chunder* , it has that vibe. Like a by-word for something you'd throw up into. As far as pet names and wordplay goes, this one is a little unfortunate. 😅
“Chunnel” was more popular in the UK when it first opened, as that’s what the press were calling it, but that faded over time
My dad still calls it the Chunnel
I like euro tunnel
I think at least part of the reason for this is Seinfeld - Season 7, Episode 8 "The Pool Guy".
I've heard it called Chunnel on British TV almost every time it's referenced, that's the only reason I know the word "chunnel" as an American.
"chunnel" is what Americans call it - I've never heard a Brit call it anything other than the channel tunnel
@@mattttmillerr it was called the Chunnel in the very early days when it was being built. But everyone I know calls it the channel tunnel or Eurostar, even if the latter is only true if you get the sit down train from London not the one you drive your car into.
This video is massively underresearched
Juxtaposed controls exist at every major Canadian airport and some ferry terminals under the name "pre-border clearance". If you fly from Calgary to Houston or LA, you go through US customs at the Calgary airport. US customs also handles pre-border clearance at airports in Ireland, Bermuda, and a few other places.
Someone in another comment explained that they aren’t the same thing. Juxtaposed border controls mean you’ve technically already crossed the border while in the other country and pre-border clearance just means you’ve been okayed to cross the border once you arrive. Also, if your flight or train is cancelled and you leave the airport/station, with juxtaposed border controls you have to cross the border again, but not with pre-border clearance because you never technically left that country to begin with.
My grandpa helped engineer the tunnel. He worked at Bechtel.
That video is weirdly wrong. As a EU citizen I was allowed to enter british soil while they have been a EU member state even though they might not have been part of Schengen.
Schengen only means that there are no border controls between Schengen members.
While within the EU I always have to be able to identify myself which can be done via Passport, ID Card or (not always) Drivers License. And as far as I'm aware most EU countries require at least ID Card.
That's why I have been to the UK twice without having a valid passport at the time, where the only downside was that border controls with ID cards were not automated, so I actually needed to show up at a border partrol guard showing my ID card, instead of simply scanning my Passport at a machine. (Although this mostly applied to airport border patrols afaik).
And finally now that UK left the EU I actually require a Passport, because my European ID card is not sufficient anymore as entry allowance.
Yes, but whereas anyone can travel between Belgium and France, only some people are allowed to travel between France and England, and they need to do the passport check to ensure that you are an EU citizen and therefore one of the people who is allowed to cross the border.
Hi Sam, Ben, Adam and the animators! Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria are now part of the Schengen Area too. Hope this helps!
0:45 incorrect. The sea floor is fixed, and it connect France and the UK.
FACT
i can tell from the comments that this video is definitely going to show up in the "here's all the mistakes we made" annual video
1:12 I was expecting “planes.”
Side note: the Buenos Aires ferry port is not in Burzaco or wherever that dot was placed! it's within the City of Buenos Aires, the smaller area you can see separated from the Province!
even over two years later ben doyle still can't escape lille 💔
guessing the video was ben's just because of the hot dog joke 🌭🥨
@@georginabensley9453 it is indeed Ben's
A train-related example: At Pacific Central (the train station in Vancouver) you clear customs first on Amtrak trains to the US - then you board the train from a platform completely fenced off from all other platforms... once in the US - it operates like any other Amtrak train...
Of course HAI has to talk about trains
Confused as to why they don’t have the checkpoint between Calais and the UK. Obviously the only people travelling in the Chanel tunnel are people entering or leaving from/to the UK/ Europe?
you might want to re-fact check this entire video lol
Jetlag the game ep today was great, can't believe they got to that specific station
Auntie Annie’s is objectively the incorrect way to pronounce it. I say antie Anne’s even though I say aunt for everyone else.
But it is Annie in the name. I'm confused.
@@FAB13you successfully gaslighted me into thinking I’d Mandela affected the name auntie Anne’s for around 20 minutes… 2:40 bravo
Why not just say Auntie Anne?
Before Shengen, it was quite common to have border checks on trains. Slower ones simply stopped at border, everyone get checked. But high category trains, did not stop. Officers get on train in last stop in country, checked on route everyone and then get off on first stop in second country. Train did not stop anywhere in between.
I think a lot of the info in here is mistaken. First you cite an article (threat of arrests by Belgian police of British officers) which dates back to 2011 when Britain was still part of the EU.
Also as far as I know, you cannot actually buy a ticket to a Schengen station if the train is going to the UK and you need to show your passport.
In any case in most EU countries you cannot just go around without an ID. in fact if you intend to stay over 3 months in many places you need to register and be able to sustain yourself
I'm at 0:16 and... what? That caught me way off guard 😂
Basel has some airport shenanigans but also some train ones with france and Germany in the train stations
Switzerland is in Schengen, which theoretically should allow people to travel freely, but it's not in the EU's customs area, which makes any goods that those freely travelling people are carrying liable for search.
@@exsandgrounder You can, after leaving the plane, choose if you want to take the France / Germany exit, or the Swiss one. So if you had something that you could freely transport in the EU but not in Switzerland, just take the EU exit and drive from the french side to Switzerland
@@exsandgrounder but they do seem to pick and choose who to stop and search. We used to live there and went to France every day just bc and they would let us thru (UK registered car and all) without stopping, but others they would constantly stop. We would get glared at bc of it. Hubby said he thinks he's on some kind of free pass list (or whatever you want to call it) that lets us go wherever in the EU and associated areas that we want, as long as he's with us. If it's just me, it wouldn't be allowed bc I'm from Canada, so...
3:50 There's an interesting fact about the trains there. The train carriages and platforms are Chinese controlled, but the train depot is not. So when a train comes from the depot, hong kong border control checks the train staff out (maybe at the depot, I'm not sure) and chinese border control checks them in on the platform, and then the train becomes chinese.
There are also hong kong border controls in mainland China, specifically Shenzhen Bay Checkpoint and soon Huanggang Checkpoint, but I guess they're closer to the border.
Someone should tell Sam that the UK left the EU and has not in fact physically shoved the island away and stopped being European
Ah yes, the perfect video to watch during Christmas dinner to avoid arguments with the family.
Juxtaposed controls sounds kinda like US Pre-Clearance at airports in Canada and other destinations. Only difference is that it's not reciprocal.
Third guy at the conference table: We could just join Schengen
*gets thrown out window*
Got my US immigration done at Toronto international airport a few times before boarding the flight
So, the solution was to build a wall.....between the train cars
We need to talks about trains? On this channel? Impossible
I was once on a train between Switzerland and Italy and they had officials walking around checking passports and tickets on the train. I don't know how long the train ride is between stations, but they could check tickets in that time, arresting anyone who doesn't have one, and checking the passports of anyone who does have a ticket. I don't know the specific laws, but something like "arresting"/"confining" anyone who isn't suppose to be on the train, could maybe disqualify them from claiming refugee status. If that isn't possible legally, then they can try to get the checks done as quick as possible, so they can be kicked off the train at the last stop before the UK.
Sam:
PLANES! Nah, you gotta do something else
TRAINS! Nah, somethingelse
AIRPORTS! Nah, that's related to planes
FINE, I'll do Logistics of PLANES,TRAINS AND AIRPORTS. But wait, also airport security, route planning, pricing of trains and planes, route scheduling and just some other videos 1 in 20 videos to check if his gambling on just these videos do work out (yes, it's a reference to the gambling/insurance video
I had seen a very strange loophole to enter EU without ever needing to have a visa back in 2018. I was travelling(Using my Indian passport) from Glasgow to Mumbai; my flight was Glasgow - Dublin (Aer Lingus) and Dublin - Abu Dhabi (Etihad) - and Abu Dhabi - Mumbai (Etihad).
When I boarded the plane from Glasgow, there was no immigration check to enter Dublin. When I reached the Dublin International Airport, there was no way to get and 'exit' stamp anywhere.
If I had any tickets to any cheap flights flying to any EU country; I could have boarded that and entered EU without any Visa. I had a UK Tourist Visa, which had nowhere mentioned that I could enter Republic of Ireland(EU Region).
I literally had to notify the airport authorities and get my exit stamp. They asked me to 'exit' the airport through the 'Arrivals' gate and 'enter' through the 'Departures' gate. nobody came with me for this procedure. I could have easily entered Dublin.
Anyways, I got myself an 'exit' stamp from Ireland and then I boarded my Abu Dhabi flight, just to keep the things simple; and to have a proof of legal exit from the Europe.
1:55
You're forgetting the Common Travel Area between the UK & Ireland
So, in some ways, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is also just for fun
2/3 of all EU border crossings are in Ireland, and they are very invisible, just a sign saying "Speed limits in km/h" if you are entering Ireland or "Speed limits in mph" if you are entering Northern Ireland.
The way you have mangled in the advert is genius
Idea to fix this problem: the UK should join back EU and join Shengen area :)
On British trains there are ticket inspectors. They walk along the length of the train to ensure everyone has a valid ticket.
Why not have visa/passport inspectors who walk along the train, checking the person has the necessary passport/visa. If they don't then they are put in a detention carriage, and are handed over to the French visa/passport inspectors on the return train.
> If they don't then they are put in a detention carriage
lol
Dentention Carriage? That would be a waste of capacity.
Why should they come up with a better solution? This one seems like a pretty decent one.
I can't actually think of a better solution, except just reversing it, those who want to stay in the Schengen can move freely and thone going to the UK are separated, if there's more domestic travellers than international ones
i just noticed the flag at 1:09 is wrong
Is it upside down?
Fairly sure the bottom portion is just blocked by a kiosk
@@declanomalley7914 No, OP is right.
The proportions are all off, so the inverted red and white saltires look wrong because their white fimbriation is in the wrong place.
@@jeltje50 no the white lines are proper
How
The single train-car idea actually makes sense.
I just woke up and I was like “damn I don’t remember this video” and just realized this is a new video.
You know the video is going to be terrible when it's written by Ben Doyle
3:43 US Immigration is also in some Canadian airports and in Dublin.
Also Abu Dhabi, Aruba, Bermuda, Nassau and Shannon.
The funniest thing about this video is that I was eating an Amtrak hot dog while I was watching it. LOL
This video is wrong - as far as I know some passports are (were?) checked at arrival at St Pancras; the Marne-la-Vallée - Chessy (Disneyland) services didn’t have juxtaposed controls.
It meant French immigration is performed at Marne la Vallée Chessy, while UK Immigration takes place on arrival at St Pancras.
Adverts after the video is finished???? What is this a Christmas blessing???
What if every twelth person who buys a ticket to Lille is forced to participate in a British Squid games where the prize is a British passport. This will certainly discourage people from wanting to become British.
As a British person I can assure you that Britain itself does a pretty good job of discouraging people from wanting to be British.
first time i have been under 10 minutes to a half as interesting video
first time i have been under 19 minutes to an @I-_-l-_-l-_-l-_-l-_-l-_-l-_-l comment
Sam: gets an Irish passport, instantly starts roasting the UK twice as hard
The UK was under Irish rule 200 years ago, bet you did not know that.
As it looks now Eurostar will stop going to NL soon. The high speed rail was built with such bad quality that trains are only allowed to go 70km/h to ensure the walls don't cave in, making it impossible for Eurostar to run a timely schedule.
Thanks ProRail!
Sam, small graphic suggestion: 1:44
Croatia joined Schengen area in January 2023. So this is technically a 2022 map
the us also stations immigration controls in countries abroad, like Canada and ireland
And in Canada , you clear us customs when flying from Canada to us
The only people who call it the “Chunnel” are Americans lol. No one calls it that here