Rail passengers will be unable to directly travel from Amsterdam to London for six months next year as a big revamp of the Dutch capital’s largest railway station causes upheaval on the Eurostar.
The refurbishment of Centraal station will lead to the suspension of the high-speed services from Amsterdam between next June and early 2025, the Dutch national railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), said.
The station’s overhaul means that there is insufficient space to allow passengers destined for London to travel through security and border checks before reaching trains, the latest blow to hit the service.
Trains will run empty on the Amsterdam-London route during the period, while passengers heading for London will have to change trains in Brussels, Belgium, instead.
Travellers will still be able to go one-way by Eurostar from London to Amsterdam during the six-month interruption.
Eurostar trains had allowed passengers to travel from Amsterdam to London St Pancras station via Rotterdam.
It had been feared that the works, which will result in new passport and security facilities being installed in the international terminal at the station, would take at least a year, meaning the six-month stoppage could prove a relief for some passengers.
However, it is a blow to passengers, as well as officials who had attempted to avoid any pause in the service, which was highly anticipated before its launch, in October 2020.
Talks between Eurostar, the Dutch government, NS and the infrastructure provider ProRail to examine the issue began in the summer.
A statement from NS said: “Unfortunately, we have had to conclude that despite all efforts, there will be a period in which there will be no direct train to London from Amsterdam.
“That is very disappointing because we have worked hard in recent years to make the Eurostar to London an attractive alternative to the plane. It is a particularly difficult puzzle to solve.
“If there had been a simple solution, all parties would have seized it with both hands. Unfortunately, after various investigations, that simple solution appears not to exist.”
From 2025, the service will allow 400 passengers to depart on each train, up from 250 now, rising to 650 later that year.
The Eurostar group chief executive, Gwendoline Cazenave, said: “Eurostar has always aimed to find a solution that would have the least possible impact on customers, the environment and its business.
“We are pleased that the discussions have shortened the gap in services between Amsterdam and London from 12 to six months and we continue to work on reducing the inconvenience for passengers, local residents and the economy of Amsterdam and surrounding areas.”
Passenger processing on Eurostar routes has been under pressure since new rules came into force post-Brexit.
Earlier this year, Eurostar – majority owned by the French state operator SNCF – stopped direct services from London to Disneyland Paris from next summer, amid signs of shrinking UK ambitions post-Brexit.
Last month, a Spanish rail company, Evolyn, announced plans to run a Paris to London train service to rival Eurostar.
