by Sebastian Hoffmann
- July 2024 -

Travelling to the United Kingdom without a plane is possible! London and other destinations in southern England are often easily accessible by train or ferry. Cologne, for example, is geographically almost halfway between Berlin and London. 
Some options and tips & tricks are summarised here: 
 

TRAVELLING BY TRAIN FROM GERMANY TO THE UK / FROM THE UK TO GERMANY 

The only train provider for cross-border train journeys to/from the UK is Eurostar, which uses the Eurotunnel/Channel Tunnel. There are no direct connections from Germany. From southern Germany, London can be reached by changing trains in Paris; from western, eastern and northern Germany, the best option is to change trains in Amsterdam or Brussels. 
For the journey from/to Berlin to/from London, a combination with the night train from/to Berlin to/from Brussels, currently (as of 2024) operated by ÖBB or European Sleeper, can also be interesting. 

Further detailed information on the train connection between the UK and Germany can be found on the website The Man in Seat 61.

Booking tickets on bahn.de
The "London Spezial" fare, an often very cheap, through ticket to/from London from/to any station to Germany, was unfortunately discontinued in March 2020.

However, it is still possible to book tickets from Germany to London via bahn.de International. Separate tickets are issued (usually a ticket to Amsterdam, Brussels or Paris and a separate ticket for the journey to London). For the journey to Amsterdam, Brussels or Paris, there are often affordable (Super) Sparpreis Europa saver fares; for the journey to London, the prices are usually identical to the prices listed on the Eurostar website. Sometimes, depending on availability, there are also discounted Eurostar tickets that are only available via bahn.de (the so-called "De Connect" fare), which is sometimes cheaper than booking via Eurostar. However, this fare is only available for connections via Brussels, not via Amsterdam or Paris. More information can be found in the blog of train specialist Jon Worth.

Tip: Book Eurostar tickets early and separately
Normally, bahn.de only releases tickets 180 days before the date of travel. There are exceptions for travel times after the timetable changes in mid-October (for winter) and mid-June (for summer). Tickets for the Eurostar, however, are usually available much further in advance, as the timetables are fixed further in advance. For example, tickets for the following year can already be purchased in the summer. As Eurostar tickets are expensive, it is therefore worth booking as early as possible and not waiting for "De Connect" fares, which are often only slightly cheaper.

Tip: Do not book connecting trains to/from Germany with Eurostar
It is also possible to book tickets to/from Germany directly via the Eurostar website, for which there are connections with Eurostar trains from Brussels (e.g. Cologne). These connections were previously offered under the Thalys brand. At the end of 2023, Thalys and Eurostar were merged to form the Eurostar brand. Experience has shown that the connecting fares to German destinations are considerably more expensive than the ICE trains with DB’s saver fares. It is therefore worth comparing prices. 

Tip: Add a stopover 
As travelling to/from London to/from Germany is only possible with at least one change of trains, it can make sense to use the "intermediate stop" function when booking via bahn.de. This function allows you to add up to two intermediate stops. However, the total journey time must not exceed 48 hours. The advantage is that one ticket with one price is issued for the entire journey. This is often much cheaper than booking individual tickets for each stage of the journey. As the changeover in Cologne (to/from Brussels) is often tight, a longer changeover time can be scheduled using the intermediate stop function. Although this extends the total journey time, the time in Cologne can be used for a relaxed meal, for example. 

Tip: Group&Saver Europe or Sparpreis Europa Gruppe fares
When travelling to/from Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris, it is worth looking at DB's special offers for groups of six or more people: Group&Saver Europe (Paris only) and Sparpreis Europa Group (also Brussels and Amsterdam). These special fares include seat reservations free of charge and tickets can be booked up to six or twelve months in advance. For the journey to London, Eurostar also offers group fares on request. 

Tip: Interrail
It may be worth checking whether the planned journey is cheaper with an Interrail Pass. A Global Pass must be purchased to use Eurostar trains to/from London. It is important to note that most cross-border connections are subject to reservation and Interrail Pass users must pay a separate fee for the reservation. During peak travel periods, the reservation quotas for Interrail users may be limited and therefore not every connection can be reserved. Reservations should be made as early as possible. The surcharge for the Eurostar costs between 30 and 65 euros extra per route from/to London (as of 2024) plus possibly a handling fee (depending on the platform on which the reservation is purchased). 

Further information is available on the Interrail website and at The Man in Seat 61. 

Tip: "Any Belgian station"
If you are travelling to/from London to/from Belgium via Brussels, you can book a ticket to/from any city in Belgium (including Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, etc.) on the Eurostar website. The ticket is then valid for pre/post-travel on Belgian regional and InterCity trains (not on ICE, Eurostar/Thalys and the metro/tram in Brussels).  Further information: Eurostar

Missed your connection?
Deutsche Bahn and Eurostar are part of Railteam. This means that they apply the "HOTNAT" rule in the event of delays and the resulting missed connections. "HOTNAT" means "Hop on the next available train". This means that if the connecting train is missed, the next available train can be used. This is also the case if the connection is not booked as a continuous ticket but consists of several individual tickets. If you have printed tickets, it is recommended that you obtain the relevant stamp from the train crew or information desk as proof of the delay. If the Eurostar connection was missed, the Eurostar staff at the Eurostar counter or check-in must generate a new ticket and reservation. This is usually possible without any problems. Travelling on Eurostar connections outside the United Kingdom, which generally require reservations, is more difficult, e.g. from Brussels to Cologne (formerly operated as Thalys). Due to the reservation requirement on all Eurostar trains, late connecting passengers cannot always be taken on these connections. It is better to switch to the ICE connection with Deutsche Bahn. There are often delays and cancellations, especially between Cologne and Brussels. It is helpful to allow enough time for the change or a stopover. Since 2024, there has been a new direct connection between Aachen (Germany) and Liège (Belgium) with a regional train (euregioAIXpress) as an alternative to high-speed trains, which can be used for the onward journey to Brussels in the event of train cancellations. 

Check-in and border control
As at an airport, there are baggage and security checks when travelling on the Eurostar train through the Eurotunnel. However, passport control for crossing the border into the UK or the Schengen area takes place at the station of departure and not on arrival at the destination. This has the advantage that there are no more passport controls on arrival in the destination country, only random customs checks. Allow at least 45 to 60 minutes for the control procedure at the station before the train departs.

Please note: Entry to the UK or the Schengen area is only possible with a valid passport, no longer with an identity card. Non-visa nationals must check whether an electronic pre-registration (ETA/Electronic Travel Authorisation for entry to the UK or ETIAS for entry to the Schengen area) is required.

Please note: When entering the UK for a Permitted Paid Engagement, Permit Free Festival or an artistic activity with a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), you must not use the electronic passport gates, but must approach the British border staff, who will stamp your passport accordingly. 

Tip: Lounge access
With the BahnBonus loyalty card status (no matter which one, i.e. Silver, Gold or Platinum), you have access to the Eurostar lounges in Brussels, London and Paris. These lounges, which are usually reserved for premium customers, offer free snacks, drinks, magazines and comfortable seating. Staff may refuse access to BahnBonus status holders, especially in London, but it usually works. Access to the lounges is also possible for loyalty card holders of other Railteam members.
 

TRAVELLING BY FERRY FROM GERMANY TO THE UK / FROM THE UK TO GERMANY  

For journeys to/from Germany, there are currently three ferry connections in addition to the ferry from Calais to Dover (as an alternative to the train):  

• Hoek van Holland (Rotterdam) to Harwich with Stena Line,
• Amsterdam to Newcastle with DFDS,
• and Rotterdam to Hull with P&O.

The ferries to Newcastle and Hull are particularly interesting when travelling to the north of England or Scotland. The ferry to Harwich can also be useful for travelling to London, as there is a Sail&Rail ticket which includes a free onward journey by train (directly at the ferry terminal) to London (approx. 1.5-hour journey) and other destinations nearby. 

Compared to the train connection with Eurostar, the ferry crossings are significantly longer and are therefore more worthwhile for destinations in the north or near the ferry terminals. 

Further information can be found on the website The Man in Seat 61: Harwich / Newcastle/Hull.

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by J. Young
- March 2023 -

Disclaimer: None of the following should be taken as official advice. You do this at your own risk!

Remember those halcyon days when it was possible to ship artworks, artist books, CD and vinyl to and from mainland Europe and the UK without additional paperwork, customs forms and tariffs, with work actually arriving safely at its destination rather than getting sent back?

As an artist living between the UK and mainland Europe, my partner and I are often in the position where one, or both of us are exhibiting in the EU and need to transport artwork to an exhibition venue. (It is usually the responsibility of the gallery to return work after an exhibition, so I won’t go into that here.) We also run a small pop-up gallery and curatorial project in the UK and regularly invite artists from the EU to exhibit with us as part of a programme of international collaborative exhibitions across the fields of ceramics and sound art.

Before Brexit we ran a number of projects with countries in Asia (China, Hong Kong and Korea) which involved receiving large numbers of ceramic artworks in Britain, whilst navigating customs systems on the other side of the world. Now that Britain has left the EU, we are in a similar position receiving artworks from mainland Europe as we were with the rest of the world, and so what might have been a steep learning curve for us has been made somewhat easier by our previous experience. However, what I am about to tell you is not what is written in any official guidance and involves a certain amount of risk on the part of both the sending and the receiving parties.

In order to avoid paying unnecessary Customs charges and VAT duties when sending items for exhibition in the UK, here is what we have found. Regardless of the value of the items, we always ask the artist sending the work to put a small amount as the declared value, no matter what the size and weight of the packaging (we recommend £50), and write or select “temporary admission” on the customs form to signify that the works will be returned to their original owner after exhibition. In the ten or more years that we have been doing this with artists from across the globe, involving hundreds of artworks, we have only ever had a couple of small issues and both of them were due to artists who didn’t follow our advice. Even then, we have only had to pay import duties twice, and on all other occasions got the work released from customs without payment.

Obviously, some artists are uneasy about not putting the correct value on their work, as this could invalidate any potential insurance claims, but again, in practice, we have had very little trouble in this respect. In order to ensure that ceramic artworks survive the mishandling of postage and haulage operators over long distances it is of course vital that the work is properly packaged and where this has been done correctly, work always arrives in one piece. It is also very difficult to insure ceramics and other fragile artworks such as glass in the regular postal system, only by paying for specialist art handlers can you get coverage for the full value of the work and you will be charged appropriately for it. As individual artist-curators, we and the artists who exhibit with us cannot afford this sort of luxury and therefore have had to be creative in how we address the situation.

The other scenario I mentioned at the beginning, that of transporting works for exhibition to mainland Europe from the UK can often be solved by taking the work with you on the plane or in a car (we haven’t tried this by train). Again, this is something we have successfully accomplished many times, both before and after Brexit, to Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Spain, all without problem, beyond the occasional stress of worrying about the safety and integrity of items whilst in transit. For airplane travel, packing again is the key, first of all deciding whether the work should go in hand luggage or hold baggage depending on weight and materials and then being prepared to unpack artwork / sound equipment / electronics at security, if taking it on board. Here regular travel insurance can help with any possible damages, though we have thankfully never had to make a claim. So remember to check your own travel insurance for what is covered and for how much before you travel.

If you are considering transporting artworks by car (perhaps in order to install it yourself and to be present at the exhibition opening), there is always a small chance of being stopped and searched by Border guards on the Channel crossing, who will then want to know what is being ‘imported’ into the EU and for what purpose, so I urge the reader to look at the border country’s policies in this respect before deciding to go ahead. For EU residents and citizens there is less likely to be a problem as any items belonging to yourself can simply be claimed as personal property and therefore not subject to any duties or taxes.

British bureaucracy remains severely overstretched post-Brexit and so getting stopped on the way into Britain by Customs is a low risk proposition. We were recently helped by a friend who organised the transportation of a cargo of artwork from Northern Spain to the UK after a recent exhibition, and which was safely delivered by a British citizen living in Spain who regularly makes the trip to visit relatives at home. We simply waited at the port and met our ‘courier’ straight off the boat. There are a number of Facebook and other social media communities that feature postings of this sort, where people who already making the journey offer space in their vehicle in exchange for a contribution towards fuel costs. Again, you do this at your own risk.

None of the above implies that you need to break the law, by the way, and certainly don’t do anything that you don’t feel comfortable with. We have found that it is very difficult to get official advice from His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs regarding shipping artworks between the EU and UK post-Brexit, with the transportation of non-commercial artworks simply not fitting into any of the pre-existing categories under which such rules and tariffs are applied. Also, none of the official artist organisations in the UK offer advice on this topic either and so we have had to navigate all of this ‘blind’, trusting in our own judgement.

I remain optimistic that trade barriers will be removed eventually, as has been shown by the negotiation of the ‘Windsor Framework’ in Northern Ireland (NI) which has significantly reduced the barriers for trade between mainland UK and NI, but it may take a few more years for Britain to come to its senses politically and to negotiate a similar arrangement for the whole of the country. In the meantime, don’t let Brexit-induced trade barriers deter you from selling your work in Britain and in Europe, just get creative with shipping.

Editors note: Please also note our information on transport beyond EU borders and our checklist for the ATA Carnet

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by Sebastian Eppner
– August 2022 –

Our first problem was that we understood much too late that Brexit made everything quite complicated for us as a band. Since the booking agency wanted to take care of the work permit, we thought all our problems were solved. In fact, this part also worked out without any major issues (which is why I have little to contribute to the application for entry and work permits in this report). However, we only realised much too late that there was a real obstacle due to the new customs border: It is no longer easy to enter England with a car (or bus) full of equipment. The solution to this problem - as we learned - is called "ATA Carnet". As a "beginner", applying for and getting this document took us about 2-3 full working days.

For inspiration, we got a list from an artist friend of ours who once needed it for a US tour. We had the impression that the more detailed and consistent the list, the fewer questions, and potential problems at the borders. Making the list is the most complicated and time-consuming part of the new Brexit touring ‘sport.’ Each piece of equipment taken must be noted on the list with its serial number (if there is no serial number, it is good to make up your own and stick it on the piece of equipment), its current value (i.e., the value at that time, eBay Classifieds helps with the estimate), approximate weight and country of origin. Where serial numbers are missing, printed photos are useful, which can be attached to the Carnet and certified. When preparing the Carnet, we wondered what should be included (e.g., also power cables and the cables for our instruments?). I don't have a definitive answer. For example, we put all the cables in a photo and then in a bag and put them on the list as one item with an estimated value and weight.

When you have the list for the whole band, you must print it on the official document (the actual ATA CARNET paper document, a few green sheets). You can get this document for a few euros at your local Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammer, IHK) – in Berlin, at the IHK Berlin at Fasanenstraße. If you have enough time, you can have it sent to you. But we were in a VERY big hurry and went there ourselves (you can get it during their office hours). 

The IHK's online filling-in help is extremely error-prone and regularly shatters the layout of the document (this is a well-known, but irritatingly unsolved problem). Every misprint means that you must buy another official document, which means not only money but also time wasted! Therefore, experienced border crossers print the document with their own template. As soon as we had the official document, we "copied" it in Excel and then tried it out with many test printouts until the list seemed to fit well on it. Only then did we put the sacred green sheets in the printer and printed on them. I was in a hurry at the time and aged about three years. So, allow plenty of time.

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