Eurostar Amsterdam to London trains cancelled for six months

This is because of customs and border controls required by the UK, which needs a large separated and secured section inside the train station. Trains to other European destinations don't need any of that. Note that this direct route with border controls in Amsterdam has only been available since 2020. Before that all the checks were done in Brussels, a situation that they will revert to during the six months of refurbishment.

Dramatic Headline. Only the direct trains will stop. The majority of the Amsterdam to London trains already involved a change in Brussels, where they do have a large and chaotic border control area for onward travel to London. These will still be running.<p>Eurostar wanted to change this to allow direct trains from Amsterdam around the time of the pandemic, but they always struggled for space. I suppose this construction will result in a definitive solution.

I always thought the eurostar was a great demonstration how not to do it.<p>Shitty trains (compared to e.g. the ICE, TGV or Thalys), the stupid border control&#x2F;security requirements with huge queues which meant you had to be there &gt;45min early, they even mimicked lounges from airline travel. It&#x27;s like because they wanted to compete with air travel across the channel, they thought &quot;how can we make train travel the most like air travel&quot; adopting most of the stupid things. I half expect them to build a separate train station next, somewhere in the middle of nowhere with extra expensive public transport connections.

&quot;Refurbishment of Centraal station in the Dutch capital is responsible for the closure.&quot;<p>Seems like they just won&#x27;t be able to handle the capacity of too many visitors at once with the construction. Hopefully will help set the station up for continued success in the future!

I believe one of the culprits in the decision making was the absence of an escalator further down the platform. It makes sense, passengers dragging their travel luggage via stairs up to the platform is sub optimal…

I have traveled between Amsterdam and London by Eurostar and by plane, and I don&#x27;t see why anyone would take the train, considering that it takes much longer and also costs much more.<p>To put some numbers to this, if I were to travel to London on December 13th (a Wednesday), I&#x27;m looking at 120 euro for a five hour trip by train. Or I can fly for 76 euro and be there in an hour.<p>Oh, and the train also requires you to be there an hour early, so you don&#x27;t get the advantage of showing up late either.

Now we have to take cheap flights and feel bad…

Is this due to Boris threatening to raid the Dutch for COVID vaccines a few years back?

Such a weird news story. Amsterdam is running a campaign to literally ask British tourists to stay away from the city.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.euronews.com&#x2F;travel&#x2F;2023&#x2F;03&#x2F;29&#x2F;see-amsterdams-newest-campaign-urging-drunken-british-tourists-to-stay-away" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.euronews.com&#x2F;travel&#x2F;2023&#x2F;03&#x2F;29&#x2F;see-amsterdams-ne...</a><p>And yet, the Netherlands is investing in their infrastructure to literally unload an even larger volume of tourists straight from London into the very heart of Amsterdam?<p>What gives? This sounds awfully contradictory.

A lot of European countries do not permit continued use of rail infrastructure while being serviced as it can be quite dangerous. [1]<p>Switzerland is an exception to this but it results in extremely complex infrastructure projects with of course a much higher cost and more accidents. However having the infrastructure available in many cases prevents overall economic losses due to less trains etc.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.srf.ch&#x2F;news&#x2F;schweiz&#x2F;unfaelle-mit-bauzuegen-gleisbaustellen-als-gefahrenhort" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.srf.ch&#x2F;news&#x2F;schweiz&#x2F;unfaelle-mit-bauzuegen-gleis...</a>