Eurostat will continue to provide direct Amsterdam-London service throughout the summer despite previous announcements stating that it would have to end this service.
In June of last year, the rail operator said it would halt its train services between Amsterdam and London for a period of 11 months. Back then, Eurostar explained that it needed to make renovations on its main railway station in the capital city, suspending trains connecting these two destinations.
However, the company has now found a solution to continue the Amsterdam-London service despite the renovations, saying that the cross-Channel terminal at Amsterdam Centraal station will remain operational until June 14 and will be closed for six months for renovation works.
As the NL Times explains, Eurostar will now maintain a limited service. The operator will have three direct trains from London to Amsterdam as well as a return service with a stop in Brussels for those travelling between the Netherlands and England capitals.
During the works, to maintain traffic between the Netherlands and the UK, and to offer customers solutions to travel on high-speed trains, Eurostar will operate three direct daily services from London to Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
Due to ongoing renovations, passengers on Amsterdam to London trains will have a stop of 48 minutes at the operator’s terminal in Brussels. During this stop, passengers will be able to undergo customs checks, passenger processing, and other formalities.
Once the formalities in Brussels are completed, the journey will continue, and passengers will arrive in London in one hour.
Since there will be a stop, this will cause the journey time to increase. As explained by NL Times, instead of the previous four hours, the journey will now last around four hours and 40 minutes.
Regarding door-to-dor travel time, the CEO of Eurostar, Gwendoline Cazenave, has reportedly said that it will remain the same as passengers will no longer be required to arrive for their Amsterdam departure 45 minutes early.
The direct service between Amsterdam and London was planned to be halted for almost a year. However, since this is considered a very “valuable connection” and the direct journey is more convenient for passengers, the operator decided to come up with this solution.
The solution came not long after Eurostar reported an increased number of passengers using its services.
Recent data from Eurostar show exceptional growth in 2023. Through 2023, Eurostar said that it transported around 18.6 million passengers, which is 22 per cent more than in 2022 and at the same level as in the pre-pandemic period.
The routes that saw the highest growth from the UK last year were London – Amsterdam (38 per cent), London – Brussels (33 per cent), and London – Paris (25 per cent).
