Eurostar announces launch date for Amsterdam service

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Photo: Eurostar.
Photo: Eurostar.
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Eurostar is set to launch its London-Amsterdam service on April 4.

It follows a number of test drives on the Dutch high-speed network and the building of Eurostar terminals in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Announcing the news, outgoing CEO Nicolas Petrovic said that it “heralds a new era in international high speed rail” that will transform the links between the UK and three of Europe’s top trading nations.

Tickets – £35 one-way – will go on sale from February 20, the same day that an inaugural service will run from St Pancras International.

The new service will connect passenger from St Pancras to Amsterdam in three hours and 41 minutes. Journeys from London to Brussels will take one hour and 48 minutes and from London to Rotterdam in three hours and one minute, according to Eurostar.


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A Eurostar train at Amsterdam Centraal station. Photo: NS.
A Eurostar train at Amsterdam Centraal station. Photo: NS.

The new service will be launched with two trains a day departing at 08.31 and 17.31, respectively.

Eurostar said that during the initial period, passengers will travel direct from London to Amsterdam and Rotterdam and on the return journey will connect through Brussels, where passport controls and security screening will be carried out.

This connecting return journey will be a temporary measure while the UK and Netherlands governments complete an agreement which will enable passport checks to be conducted on departure in The Netherlands, similar to other key Eurostar destinations.

The governments have committed to putting this agreement in place by the end of 2019 so that Eurostar travellers can then enjoy a direct service in both directions.


Read more: Express London-Amsterdam Eurostar service being explored


 

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