From 10 February 2025, Eurostar will again run trains between Amsterdam Central Station to London St. Pancras. Engineering works in Amsterdam prevents this connection at the moment. Earlier, Eurostar CEO Gwendoline Cazenave threatened to leave the Netherlands altogether. 

Until then, due to work on the Eurostar terminal at Amsterdam Central, passengers had to transfer in Brussels for passport control for a while. The carrier previously threatened to leave the Netherlands but has now received enough commitments to continue the connections from Amsterdam, Dutch news agency ANP and Treinreizeiger.nl report. 

Eurostar recently sounded the alarm twice. The last time was earlier in October 2024 in a letter to the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) in which the carrier reported that, despite the timely completion of the renovation of the terminal at Amsterdam Central, there were more problems that were hindering reliable service. 400-metre-long trains

Belgium and France

Eurostar CEO Gwendoline Cazenave wanted the train company to be able to use more routes to Belgium and France to avoid bottlenecks on part of the high-speed line in the province of South Holland. 

She also demanded that it be made easier to use 400-metre-long trains in Amsterdam and that the Royal Marechaussee would carry out free border checks. The Royal Marechaussee (Koninklijke Marechaussee, KMar) also translated as the Royal Military Constabulary, is the national gendarmerie force of the Netherlands, performing military and civilian police duties.

Two out of three

Eurostar got its way on two of the three points. Only the issue with the Royal Marechaussee has not yet been resolved, a spokeswoman said. She added that Eurostar will be able to transport more passengers to London by train from February, because the terminal is larger than before. In addition, the number of seats per train will be further increased in the course of next year.

“Promising future in the Netherlands”

“Eurostar remains committed to a promising future in the Netherlands”, Cazenave now says.

“We thank our partners Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) and ProRail for their cooperation in resuming the direct service to London and continuing it to Paris and Brussels.”

ProRail CEO John Voppen calls it “fantastic news”. NS CEO Wouter Koolmees is also happy with the news for passengers. 

State Secretary for Public Transport and Environment Chris Jansen (PVV) is also satisfied. “This will help international travellers choose the train as a means of transport between these two cities.”

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