The train was late leaving London – 14 months tardy, no less – but history was made today as Eurostar finally launched its long-awaited service to Amsterdam. The journey time: just three hours and 41 minutes.
There were no paying punters aboard the 8.31am from St Pancras – which Eurostar had initially planned to launch in December 2016 – just a handful of journalists and industry people, who’d been invited to experience the new route ahead of its official launch on April 4.
Telegraph Travel's Gavin Haines boards the new Eurostar service with his bike Credit: Gavin Haines
As we tucked into a cooked breakfast designed by Raymond Blanc – the misty Kent scenery a blur on the other side of the window – tickets for the forthcoming service went on sale to the general public, with one-way fares starting from just £35.
London to Amsterdam is currently one of the busiest air routes in Europe, but Eurostar reckons its new high-speed rail service will soon change all that.
“We know that many passengers do not enjoy the experience of flying short haul,” Nicolas Petrovic, Eurostar’s outgoing CEO, told me, as we hurtled towards Amsterdam. “Now they have another choice.”
So should the airlines be worried? Well, Eurostar is certainly competing with the low-cost carriers on price; the cheapest flight we could find to Amsterdam this April was £27, which, by the time you’ve added bags, chosen your seats and bought a ticket to the airport, works out more expensive than the cheapest Eurostar.
And once you’ve factored in the time spent dwelling in the airport, there’s not much difference in journey time between the plane and train – at least not on the outbound journey (more on that later).
The train is also better for the environment, more refined and more productive for business passengers; indeed the plug sockets and free Wi-Fi aboard the new e320 carriages, which will be used on this route, made this very story possible.
That’s not all. The seats are more comfortable, there’s more legroom and there are no tedious liquid restrictions or baggage charges to worry about; I was even able to take my fold-up bike, which wouldn’t have been practical on the plane.
So it was with a certain smugness that I zipped through Kent, France and Belgium, where, precisely one hour and 48 minutes after leaving London, we stopped in Brussels. That's another thing about the new Amsterdam service: it cuts the journey time between the English and Belgian capitals by 17 minutes.
Onboard the train there was an announcement as we crossed the border into Holland; Champagne was served.
The next stop was Rotterdam, which we arrived at three hours and one minute after leaving London. One feels the Netherlands’ second city, and its surrounds, have perhaps the most to gain from the new service.
Amsterdam Centraal appears on the Departures board at St Pancras International for the first ime Credit: Gavin Haines
“Rotterdam is not that well known as a destination,” said Petrovic. “We want to change that.”
We pulled into Amsterdam Centraal three hours and 41 minutes (give or take) after leaving St Pancras.
Soon I was looking out across Singel with a cold beer, listening contentedly to the familiar sounds of Amsterdam: bikes rattling over cobbles, bells ringing, motor boats chugging down the canals.
It cheered me that this wonderful city was now only a train ride away, but I doubted the local authorities felt the same: Amsterdam has been feeling the impact of mass tourism lately and there have been numerous attempts to reduce the number of people visiting the city. The Dutch capital has clipped the wings of Airbnb, banned new hotels from opening in the historic centre and introduced a new tourist tax to deter unruly stag and hen dos.
I dropped the tourist board an email to see what they thought of the new service – and the reply was telling.
“The new Eurostar service to Holland serves both Rotterdam and Amsterdam,” responded Sandra Ishmael, a director at the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions.
“It is a great opportunity to give British visitors another route to Holland – and Rotterdam is a great city for the British to discover. Amsterdam provides a gateway for British visitors to discover other Dutch cities including Haarlem, Utrecht and The Hague.”
I only had an hour and a half in Amsterdam before hopping back on the train to London. Only there wasn’t a direct train to London and nor will there be until the end of 2019, thus exposing the biggest flaw in the new Eurostar service; it’s currently only one-way.
That’s fine if you’re moving permanently to the Netherlands, but if like most visitors you want to return home to your family you’ll have to take a Thalys train to Brussels where you go through passport control and change onto a Eurostar service to London.
Eurostar acknowledges this is a problem, though it remains powerless while the governments in the UK and the Netherlands complete an agreement which will enable passport checks to be conducted on departure in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
“That’s the final piece of the jigsaw,” said Petrovic. “The Dutch government has agreed to put that in place in 2019 - the sooner the better. It’s not ideal.”
The London to Amsterdam train takes three hours and 41 minutes Credit: Getty
Until an agreement is reached, the inbound journey will take at least four hours and 40 minutes and require changing trains. It’s hard to see how this will sway people off the plane.
BA certainly isn’t concerned. I contacted them in Holland to see what they made of the new (currently one-way Eurostar service), which will depart St Pancras twice a day: at 8.41 and 17.21.
“We know our customers enjoy the choice of 17 flights from London a day, with airports to suit travellers starting their journey from all across the region,” a spokesperson told me.
“And with a flight time of just 80 minutes, they’ll sampling a beer by the canals long before the train pulls in.”
Sounds like a challenge: the race is on.
Take the train from London to Amsterdam With our new twice-daily train direct from London to Amsterdam, it takes just 3hrs 41 mins to get from city centre to city centre. Sales open on Thursday 22 February. And there’s no hidden charges for luggage or limits on liquids. London to Amsterdam timetable
Arriving at the station Get to St Pancras International 45-60 minutes before departure so there's plenty of time to go through security and passport control. Once in the departure lounge you'll find shops to buy refreshments for the journey as well as newspapers and magazines.
What’s on board? You won't be bored on board with Metropolitan magazine and our free onboard entertainment. You can watch top shows from Amazon Prime, enjoy a film, or two, or get engrossed in a documentary. There are also kid's shows, games and Eurostar Odyssey – a virtual reality adventure on board. There’s free wi-fi for everyone and a power socket at every seat – so you can keep your devices charged up. Food and drinks are available from Café Métropole and, if you’re travelling in Standard Premier or Business Premier, you’ll get a complimentary meal. Children under 16 cannot travel unaccompanied on our direct route to the Netherlands.
Arriving in Amsterdam Please be sure to keep your ticket handy for arrival. You’ll need to scan it at the NS ticket gates to exit your destination station. Looking for local information? You’ll find the Amsterdam Tourist Office outside the main entrance to the station in a traditional white wooden Dutch coffee house.
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The first Amsterdam-bound train has left London’s St Pancras International (Picture: Getty)
The first ever direct train from London to Amsterdam is making its way through Europe on Tuesday morning.
Eurostar is operating the trial run ahead of the public launch of its brand new Amsterdam service on April 4.
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And the inaugural journey appears to have got off without a hitch, as the train left St Pancras International at its scheduled departure time of 8.31am.
The journey takes three hours and 41 minutes, and tickets will go on sale to the public at 4pm, a couple of hours after it reaches Amsterdam in the early afternoon.
Passengers on board the historic first ride have tweeted photos from on board as service ES9114 makes its way to the Dutch capital.
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The public will be able to use the service from April (Picture: Getty)
Heading north. #ES9114 passes is through the Brussels Junction and onto the Diabolo, bound for #Amsterdam pic.twitter.com/dXpUBP7tZP — Chris Jackson (@cmajrail) February 20, 2018
Tickets start at £35 one way, and the train will depart twice a day, at 8.31am and 5.31pm.
It will stop in Brussels and Rotterdam before arriving in Amsterdam.
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Initially, the return journey is set to be a little longer – estimated at about four hours and 49 minutes – as passengers will have to change in Brussels.
This is because Dutch authorities have not yet arranged for passport checks at Amsterdam station.
However, this is set to be reversed next year, making the journey direct, according to Eurostar.
The 8.31am Amsterdam Express became a reality today. A special Eurostar train left London St Pancras International exactly on time, carrying the train operator’s staff, travel industry figures and media.
The train raced through Kent – where there have been calls for it to stop in Ebbsfleet or Ashford – and into the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone at 9.05am. It emerged exactly 20 minutes later, and sped through Calais and Lille, which are also omitted from the schedule.
The new London-Amsterdam train calls at Brussels-Midi, and indeed accelerates the best journey time from St Pancras to the Belgian capital to just 108 minutes.
The train arrived to much fanfare (Simon Calder)
While Eurostar has captured three-quarters of the market from London to both Brussels and Paris, the journey time to Amsterdam is around twice as long. Airlines have dismissed rail’s credibility as competition.
Amsterdam is the best-served continental city by air from London. And there is also a serious problem with the inbound Eurostar service. Until sometime next year, Amsterdam-London passengers are told to take a Thalys high-speed train to Brussels, and connect there for Eurostar.
A deal between the UK and the Netherlands on “juxtaposed border controls”, allowing British officials to check passports of passengers at Amsterdam and the intermediate step of Rotterdam, has not yet been finalised. So initially all passengers will need to clear security and passport control in Brussels.
One of the passengers on board was Tom Hall, editorial director of Lonely Planet travel guides.
“I travel to Amsterdam quite a lot, because there are a number of big travel companies based there. I will definitely be taking this train out. But I won’t necessarily be taking it back, until I can get a direct train.
“The stop in Brussels slows you down. The question is how important is speed versus the pleasure of taking the train.”
Nicolas Petrovic, chief executive of Eurostar said: “You don’t hop on a plane. You have to get to the airport, wait to check in, wait, wait wait. You’re not long in the air but you can’t do anything. On the train it’s your time.
“You can enjoy the trip from the moment you depart.”
South of Antwerp, the train got caught in congestion with regular domestic services, but still arrived ahead of time at Rotterdam Centraal – covering the distance from London in just under three hours.
Simone Sagi, of the Netherlands Board of Tourism in London, said: “We hope it will bring more tourists to Rotterdam.”
The second Dutch city is more vibrant and architecturally dramatic than Amsterdam, and also has poor air connections from the UK. A three-hour rail link is likely to prove popular with business travellers as well as city-breakers. And for the journey home, there is a retro option: taking the Rotterdam Metro to Hook of Holland, and an overnight ferry from there to Harwich in Essex.
The Eurostar train travels via Schiphol airport, but does not stop there. Today’s service arrived on platform 15 of Amsterdam Central Station three minutes behind schedule.
Commercial services begin on 4 April. There will be departures at 8.31am from London daily except Sundays, and at 5.31pm daily except Saturdays.
Fares start at £35 each way.
