Eurostar plans to cut boarding times by 30 minutes after bosses admitted that St Pancras International station had become too much like an airport.

Under the planned shake-up, St Pancras passengers will be able to board Eurostar trains straight away rather than having to wait in the departures hall.

Passengers are currently required to check in 60 minutes before boarding, but the new system means they will be permitted to board up to half an hour before their train departs.

The move will allow people to turn up much closer to the time that their train is due to leave, easing pressure on the station as Eurostar expands and as rival rail companies launch services through the Channel Tunnel.

Wendy Spinks, the chief commercial officer at London St Pancras Highspeed, said the terminus needed to function more like a domestic railway station. She warned that taking the Eurostar had become too much like flying.

She said: “It cannot be the equivalent of an airport departure lounge. We see it being a really quick process. Going straight to the train is part of the plan.

“It has become too close to the airport experience, where you check in, go to security, wait in the lounge and then rush to the gate.

“You will always want some people to turn up a bit earlier so that you can process them and get them on board but at least 50pc of passengers should go straight to the train.”

The changes to speed up wait times will be rolled out with the remodelling of St Pancras as it prepares for the launch of services by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Trains and Trenitalia of Italy by the end of the decade.

Ms Spinks said the departures logjam acted as the main obstacle to growth, with the tunnel and five international platforms at St Pancras already able to take many more trains.

Overcrowding worsened with the expansion of border controls at the station including the installation of kiosks to handle biometric checks for the EU’s entry and exit system.

She said: “Over time, security and border processing has taken up more and more space so that when you get through security, there’s nothing there.

“There is a mismatch between what the route can handle and what the station can handle.”

The £100m remodelling is expected to free up space by expanding the queuing area into the barely used arrivals hall adjoining the departures area.

Platforms will be shared between operators, with passengers expected to find their own way to the correct train.

She said: “If you look at Gare du Nord in Paris, they’ve got trains going all over the place. It’s your job to get on the right one.”

Ms Spinks said reducing the waiting time at St Pancras was also seen as key to luring more people on to the train over longer distances.

She said travelling by train “should be less stressful”, adding: “You can work and sit at a table as a group and you get to the centre of a city rather than a distant airport.

“But the more you go beyond two hours and start getting out to Germany or Geneva, say, then your time differential is harder against flying. If we shrink the time that you hang around in the station it cuts the end-to-end journey.”

Ms Spinks said that St Pancras Highspeed, which also owns the HS1 line to the Channel Tunnel, is considering applications from potential new entrants and that it expects to make recommendations on access to the Office of Rail and Road in the next few weeks.

She said there could be no guarantee that all parties will be granted the volume of services that they are seeking.

A CHANGE to how you board the Eurostar is about to make it much easier to head over to Europe.

The international train operator has said they will cut boarding times by 30 minutes in an attempt to ease crowding at St Pancras station.

Currently, Eurostar passengers must check in an hour before boarding their train, where they they have to wait in departures.

According to The Telegraph, there are plans to allow passengers to board Eurostar trains as soon as they arrive at the station.