EUROPE: Direct trains between Amsterdam Centraal and London will be reinstated from February 10 2025, with the opening of a higher capacity departure terminal for passengers on Eurostar’s cross-Channel service.
Through services were suspended from June 15 because remodelling works meant there was no space for passengers on London-bound trains to undergo pre-boarding Channel Tunnel security and UK border checks. Passengers from the Netherlands to London currently need to undertake the checks at Brussels Midi; services towards Amsterdam are not affected.
It was originally envisaged that services could be suspended for up to a year, but intense negotiations between the operator, the Dutch government and infrastructure manager ProRail — including bringing in a Swiss consultancy as a neutral party — identified ways to reduce the timescale.
‘Eurostar is fully committed to a bright future in the Netherlands and we thank our partners NS and ProRail for their work with us to ensure direct services to London could return’, said the SNCF-owned high speed operator’s CEO Gwendoline Cazenave on November 1. ‘We look forward to the opening of the new Amsterdam terminal, which is going to offer more space and an exceptional experience for customers.’
NS CEO Wouter Koolmees said ’in combination with the new and enlarged check-in terminal in Amsterdam, we can offer this direct connection to more passengers than before. We are proud to deliver the new terminal within time and budget.’
Meanwhile, from November 4 the service classes on all Eurostar’s cross-Channel and ex-Thalys routes will be branded as Eurostar Standard, Eurostar Plus and Eurostar Premier. The operator said the names were devised after almost two years of research and surveying more than 12 000 customers.
