Amsterdam fights to keep direct Eurostar connection with London amid station renovation

Amsterdam wants to prevent the direct train connection with London from being lost for seven or even eleven months. Yesterday it was announced that from June next year there will be no Eurostar trains from Amsterdam to London for months.

Amsterdam Central Station will be renovated and there will be no room for passport and luggage control during the work. This check is necessary because Great Britain is not part of the Schengen customs zone.

“This connection with London is crucial for the city,” said Amsterdam alderman Melanie van der Horst AT5. “It is actually inexplicable that such an important train connection is lost for so long. Especially now that we are trying to make the train more attractive to reduce the number of short flights.”

Since October 2020 it is possible to travel by Eurostar directly from Amsterdam Central via the tunnel under the English Channel to London St Pancras. Travel time: over four hours. Those who want to join must report to the station on time in a special office, because passports and luggage are checked just as strictly by the Dutch and British customs and military police as at Schiphol.

But there is no room for that office due to large-scale work on Amsterdam Central Station, State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen of Infrastructure wrote to the House of Representatives yesterday. The Eurostar will therefore not be able to depart from Amsterdam between June 2024 and (at the latest) May 2025. The State Secretary called it “very disappointing” that it was not possible to find a solution to the problem.

“Together with the ministry, ProRail and NS, I want to see if there are any ways to shorten the time,” says alderman Van der Horst now.

Director Freek Bos of travel organization Rover reacted furiously yesterday. “The Secretary of State has the ambition that more international train journeys will be made and we must emit less CO2. There is an alternative to flying and then we say: it’s great that you did it, but we’re going to stop it now. Without an alternative. I really don’t get it. Such a renovation can be planned, can’t it?”

Bos hopes that the House of Representatives will press for a solution when the rail and international trains are discussed on Thursday. There will already be a meeting next Monday between Eurostar, the ministry, rail manager ProRail and the Dutch Railways, which will also look at what is still possible.

The Eurostar also stops in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, but the customs office there is not large enough to also check travelers from Amsterdam. This could mean that travelers from Amsterdam have to go to Brussels during the renovation to board the train to London.