On 16 May 2006, Eurostar set a new record for the longest non-stop high-speed journey, a distance of 1,421 km (883 miles) from London to Cannes taking 7 hours 25 minutes.

[19] On 4 September 2007, a record-breaking train left Paris Nord at 10:44 (09:44 BST) and reached London St Pancras International in 2 hours 3 minutes 39 seconds,[20] carrying journalists and railway workers.

[25] Three of the Regional Eurostar units were leased by Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) to increase domestic services from London King's Cross to York and later Leeds.

[28][29] An international Nightstar sleeper train was also planned; this would have travelled the same routes as Regional Eurostar, plus the Great Western Main Line to Cardiff Central.

[40] EIL is ultimately owned by SNCF (55%), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) (30%), Hermes Infrastructure (10%) and SNCB (5%).

Standard Eurostar tickets no longer include free onward connections to or from any other station in Belgium: this is now available for a flat-rate supplement, currently £5.50.

[87] Eurostar offers a through-ticket to specific destinations by train, that is a single contract for multi leg journeys with certain passenger rights and protections.

[91][92][93] In May 2019, Eurostar ended its agreement with Deutsche Bahn that allowed passengers to travel on a through-ticket by train from the UK via Brussels to Germany and further to Austria and Switzerland.

To allow passengers to walk off the train without arrival checks in most cases, juxtaposed controls ordinarily take place at the embarkation station.

To comply with UK law,[100] there are full security checks similar to those at airports, consisting of bag X-rays and walk-through metal detectors.

This arrangement was set up after numerous people entered the UK without prior authorisation, by buying a ticket from Brussels to Lille or Calais but remaining on the train until London – an issue exacerbated by Belgian police threatening to arrest UK Border Agency staff at Brussels-South if they tried to prevent passengers whom they suspected of attempting to exploit this loophole from boarding Eurostar trains.

[107] On several occasions, people have tried to stow away illegally on board the train,[108] sometimes in large groups,[109] trying to enter the UK; border monitoring and security is therefore extremely tight.

[124] As a result of the poor economic conditions, Eurostar received state aid in May 2009 to cancel out some of the accumulated debt from the High Speed 1 construction programme.

[126] In 2006, the Department for Transport predicted that, by 2037, annual cross-channel passenger numbers would probably reach 16 million,[127] considerably less optimistic than London and Continental Railways's original 1996 forecast.

Passengers in general, it stated, are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental effects of air travel, and Eurostar services emit much less carbon dioxide.

[130][131] Further expansion of the high-speed rail network in Europe, such as the HSL-Zuid line between Belgium and the Netherlands, continues to bring more destinations within rail-competitive range, giving Eurostar the possibility of opening up new services in future.

Negative media coverage combined with poor sales and the general public's low opinion of the British rail industry, created a major challenge... Eurostar was finding it difficult to pick itself up from one of the worst periods in its decade-long history.

[147] Eurostar's target was to reduce emissions by 35 percent per passenger journey by 2012, putting itself beyond the efforts of other railway companies in this field and thereby winning the 2007 Network Rail Efficiency Award.

[146] In the grand opening ceremony of London St Pancras International, one of the Eurostar trains was given the name 'Tread Lightly', said to symbolise their smaller impact on the environment compared to planes.

[162] Now the trains serve only wooden cutlery, recyclable cans of water, glass wine bottles, paper-based coffee cups, and eco-friendly food packaging.

[175] As part of the refurbishment, the Italian company Pininfarina was contracted to redesign the interiors,[176] and The Yard Creative was selected to design the new buffet cars.

[182][185][186][187] The e320 trainsets would also be quadri-current, adding the ability to run on the 15 kV  16.7 Hz AC system used in Germany, allowing for an expanded route network, including services between London and Cologne.

[188] Alstom attempted legal action to prevent Eurostar from acquiring the German-built trains, claiming that the Siemens sets would breach Channel Tunnel safety rules,[189] but the case was thrown out by the High Court in London.

[191] Alstom then started legal action claiming that the Eurostar tender process was "ineffective",[192] the High Court rejected the second suit in July 2011.

[206] An independent review, published on 12 February 2010, was critical of the contingency plans in place for assisting passengers stranded by the delays, calling them "insufficient".

In March 2016, in an interview with Bloomberg, Eurostar's Chief Executive expressed interest in operating a direct train service between London and Bordeaux, but not before 2019.

The logistics of providing space and time for these controls while conforming to the requirements of free travel within the Schengen area makes implementing new services operationally complex.

Deutsche Bahn (DB) intended to run services between London to Frankfurt and Amsterdam (two of the biggest air travel markets in Europe), with trains 'splitting & joining' in Brussels.

In July 2010, DB announced that it intended to make a test run with a high-speed ICE-3MF train through the Channel Tunnel in October 2010 in preparation for possible future operations.

In the meantime, the closest equivalent to Regional Eurostar services are same-station connections with East Midlands Railway and Thameslink, changing at London St Pancras.