How Eurostar and Dover Prepared for the EU's Fingerprint Checks

For travellers leaving London by train, crossing into mainland Europe was never quite as simple as buying a ticket and turning up. As the EU prepared to launch its Entry/Exit System (EES) — originally slated for 6 October 2024 — a fresh set of requirements loomed for anyone crossing the Channel, and the operators most exposed to delays spent months getting ready.

This article, written as the changes approached, looks at how Eurostar, the Port of Dover and the Channel Tunnel operator prepared, and why the so-called "juxtaposed" border made the task particularly tricky.

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What the EES requires at the border

Under EES, non-EU visitors entering the Schengen area have to provide biometric data — fingerprints and a facial image — in place of a manually stamped passport. That initial registration is valid for three years, during which travellers can usually use e-gates rather than seeing a passport officer each time.

The catch for Eurostar, Le Shuttle and the Port of Dover is that the French border is "juxtaposed" — physically located in Britain. That means checks and queues happen before departure, not on arrival. As one rail executive put it, everything is done in London, so on arrival passengers are free to go; the bigger challenge falls on airlines, where the EES process happens after landing.

The investment in kiosks and booths

To keep passengers moving, Eurostar invested around €10 million in revamping St Pancras International, installing 49 biometric kiosks across three areas, including dedicated zones for business and premier passengers and an upstairs overflow space for peak times. Because biometric data collection must be supervised by a European border officer on first entry, France agreed to double the number of police booths from nine to 18.

Eurostar said its modelling showed passengers could complete the process within the recommended 60 to 90 minutes before travel, and hoped to cut the final part of the border check from 59 to 37 seconds. The Channel Tunnel operator Getlink announced spending of about €70 million on measures to avoid a launch-day meltdown, while the Port of Dover raised concerns about taking biometric details from car passengers in a constrained space.

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Delays, flexibility and what came next

The scheme had already been delayed several times over concerns about back-end computing capacity, staffing and the impact on events such as the Paris Olympics. Airports' trade body ACI Europe warned that border processing time could rise by up to 50%, and that final confirmation of the start date was not expected until late August — the tail of the summer peak. Ministers prepared "precautionary flexibility measures" for an initial period of up to six months, potentially waving people through on passports if the system struggled.

EES was always intended as the precursor to a second scheme, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), which would later require British and other non-EU travellers to pre-register and pay a fee before crossing. To see how that authorisation fits into the wider picture, our ETIAS overview explains the essentials.