It could be your last chance to hop aboard the direct Eurostar train from London to Amsterdam as it was announced last week that the ever-so convenient service is being suspended for 11 months starting from next year – ain’t that a ‘dam shame.
The suspension is due to the renovation work being carried out at the Dutch capital’s chief station, Amsterdam Centraal, where they plan to demolish the facilities that are currently used to conduct passport and security checks. This large-scale renovation combined with the greater amount of space now needed for pre-departure checks of British passengers (cheers, Brexit), means that this speedy transport link could be paused indefinitely from June 2024.
The proposal for Rotterdam Centraal to be used as an alternative is not financially viable as only 160 passengers can board the train there (compared to the 250 passengers in Amsterdam) due to post-Brexit constraints (seriously – cheers, Brexit).
The (hopefully temporary) closure of this hugely popular service could play a part in adding 21 more flights each way between these two capital cities, and with short-haul flights emitting 26x the amount of carbon than international rail, it’s another sure-fire way to fill us all with even more existential dread than usual. Just what we needed, hey?
This pause in services was announced on the very same week that the Eurostar’s final ‘Disney Express‘ train departed from London St Pancras International. It’s official: you can no longer get a direct train between London and the happiest place on Earth and if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about our current state of affairs, I don’t know what will.
The number of stations served by Eurostar will now stand at (a rather measly) four compared to the twelve that it served pre-Brexit. Next year, Eurostar trains from London will only get you as far as Lille, Paris and Brussels. If someone could just take one for the team and invent teleportation already, that would be great.