Eurostar has announced it will run direct trains services between Amsterdam Centraal London St Pancras from 30 April.
There's been a direct London to Amsterdam service since early 2018, but the return journey has always involved a Thalys train from Amsterdam to Brussels Midi, where passengers change for customs checks and an onward Eurostar to London.
From the end of April, customs checks on the return leg will be performed at Rotterdam, meaning passengers can stay on the one train all the way to St Pancras. (Go on, treat yourself to a snooze.) Tickets for the direct service — which continue to start from £35 each way — go on sale from 11 February.
As well as cutting out the fiddly change-over, the new direct service means the journey time will be slashed. At the moment, the Amsterdam to London route can take anything between four hours, 42 minutes and six hours, 33 minutes(!). The new service will be as quick as four hours, nine minutes. How very civil.
A direct service from Rotterdam to London opens on 18 May.
Since opening, Eurostar's service between London and the Netherlands has carried over half a million passengers.
