Eurostar passengers can now get on the train to mainland Europe without using their passports thanks to tech supposedly 10,000 times more accurate than humans.
On Tuesday morning business class customers at St Pancras Station began walking straight through border control to the bag check without flashing their travel documents.
Today the London station has launched SmartCheck, a contactless fast-track facial biometric check-in system supplied by British tech firm iProov that is the first of its kind in the UK, and on any rail company in the world.
The process is simple and could, if this small roll-out is successful, be installed at airports and train stations across Europe and the world to significantly speed-up travel.
I arrived at St Pancras on Monday morning to put the scanners through their paces before they were switched on for the public on Tuesday.
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Ahead of my imaginary 9am train departure I'd downloaded the iProov app and let it scan my face, a slightly strobe-like array of colours flashing out of my phone as it captured my likeness.
Content with my realness, I then offered my passport up to the phone and let it read its chip. And that was it.
I got to try the tech out ahead of its launchUsually when you head through a border a guard will be on hand to scrutinise your document and, depending on their zealousness, your intentions.
SmartCheck does away with what - since the UK left the EU - has become a quite process and one which now leads huge queues to form at Dover each time schools break up for holidays.
Within a minute of arriving at the station I scanned my prop ticket with the iProov app and, Pret filter coffee cup in hand, walked through the border.
It was so fast that I and the others trying out the tech were a little taken aback by the speed with which our faces were recognised and the green 'go on through' light lit up.
While the scanners will only be used to further streamline the experience of pampered business class travellers for the foreseeable future, in years ahead they could help Eurostar and airports avoid the kind of massive queues that built up last summer.
The app can scan your face so border guards don't have to make sure you are who you say you areGareth Williams, general secretary of Eurostar, spoke to the Mirror about the scale of the challenge at St Pancras - one which has become significantly harder post-Brexit with the introduction of more border checks. "We are trying to get 11 million people through here every year through the space of three tennis courts," he said.
Over the next seven years Eurostar plans to increase its passengers numbers hugely from the estimated 19 million this year to 30million. To do this, the 15 border guards checking the passports of the 4,000 passengers who catch Eurostar from St Pancras each day may need a little assistance.
"For us it is not about replacing staff, it assists staff," Gareth continued, echoing a sentiment made by many industry leaders embracing the advent of new, AI assisted technology over the past year.
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In the future staff working with SmartCheck will spend most of their time on the more complex 5% of cases, as Border Force at airports increasingly do with the widespread installation of passport scanners.
The app scans your face with flashing coloured lightsIf run at full capacity the scanner could process 2,200 travellers an hour with far more accuracy than even a highly trained border guard - one 2014 study suggesting the latter was liable to making mistakes in 10% of cases, the former just one in a million. Andrew Bud, CEO of iProov, said that while "no system is 100% fool proof", Smartcheck "is the best that there is."
As a mark of this quality Gareth spoke of separate stress-tests the company has done for the Department of Homeland Security in the US. It was able to tell when passengers scanning their faces were wearing Mission Impossible like masks and could even weed out AI generated images - something Gareth described as "the real challenge" facing the tech.
The company insists that the process is completely secure and not vulnerable to data breaches. He added: "By creating a biometric corridor, we are moving security checks away from the station, saving precious time and space at the border, streamlining the boarding process to one that’s far faster, more convenient, less crowded and stressful, yet even more secure."
Passengers can walk through the SmartCheck machine in seconds (PA)At the moment even business class travellers moving through St Pancras will have to bring their passport to show border guards on the other end of the trip. Talks are currently underway with French and Dutch officials about the possibility of SmartCheck being used in those countries, although nothing has been agreed and no timeline set out.
Gwendoline Cazenave, CEO of Eurostar, said the scanners were about "creating the best customer experience" at the station and to meet the growing desire to travel among Brits. In order to "help customers go by train rather than plane" - the former being the much greener mode of transport - Eurostar will focus on increasing capacity at its big stations, she said.
That means smaller stations such as Ashford International and Ebbsfleet in Kent, as well as Marne-la-Vallée near Disney Land Paris, will not be serviced by Eurostar for some years to come. Gwendoline said the decision as to whether to start serving those stations again would be made "step by step".
"Providing a seamless station experience to our customers is a priority for Eurostar. We continue looking for solutions to increase capacity in stations and simplify the passengers’ flows," she explained. "SmartCheck in St Pancras International station is a solution for a faster and seamless check-in experience. By introducing SmartCheck, we become the first rail travel operator to adopt biometric face verification. This innovation will enhance our customer departure journey, which is crucial to provide Eurostar’s unique travel experience.”
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