Hoera! Eurostar will run direct trains from London to Amsterdam, from 4 April 2018.
The new service travels from St Pancras International to Amsterdam Centraal station, with a journey time of three to four hours. That may sound a long time — but just think: NO AIRPORT FAFF. And you get to depart from London's comeliest station.
Tickets go on sale from 20 February, and — in a clear bid to give the budget airlines a run for their money — prices for a single start from a very reasonable £35. Over four million passengers travel by air between London and Amsterdam every year, and Eurostar clearly plans to cut itself a wedge of the transcontinental action.
As for that £70 return ticket tag — we're guessing that, as with other Eurostar tickets, this means getting a bit lucky, and booking well ahead.
Says Nicolas Petrovic, Chief Executive of Eurostar, "The launch of our service to the Netherlands represents an exciting advance in cross-Channel travel and heralds a new era in international high speed rail. With direct services from the UK to The Netherlands, France and Belgium, we are transforming the links between the UK and three of Europe’s top trading nations."
Two trains will run daily from St Pancras, at 8.31am and 5.31pm.