Rail passengers will not be able to travel to London with the Eurostar for seven to eleven months next year. Due to the large-scale renovation of Amsterdam Central, the terminal of the international train is being demolished, while the replacement boarding point is not yet ready.
State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen (Infrastructure & Water Management) confirms this in a letter to Parliament. The Eurostar requires a relatively large amount of space now that there are passport controls and passengers’ luggage is being checked. Initially, there seemed to be no room for this at Amsterdam Central.
An alternative has now been found at the station when the renovation of Amsterdam CS starts in 2024. The replacement Eurostart terminal will be realized at the Amstelpassage. It just isn’t ready in time. From June next year until the end of May 2025, the Eurostar will therefore not be able to run, says Heijnen.
Eurostar, which runs to London four times a day, is very disappointed by the situation. “We have just celebrated our fifth anniversary and during that time we have transported 1.6 million passengers between Amsterdam and London,” says a spokesman. “The connection is a huge success and growing rapidly.”
Rotterdam no alternative
It is also a bad thing from an environmental point of view that the fast connection is out of the air for so long, says Eurostar. “That means that 21 extra aircraft have to fly between Schiphol and London every day, we have calculated. That is a real shame.”
As an alternative, diverting to Rotterdam Central is not possible, says Eurostar, now that only a maximum of 160 passengers are allowed to board there per train. That is significantly less than the 265 passengers who can board in Amsterdam. “That makes a departure from Rotterdam economically unprofitable for us. The capacity of the terminal is not greater.” Other departure locations, such as Schiphol station, also proved impossible due to a lack of space.
Robber angry: ‘Travellers in the cold’
Travelers’ association Rover is angry. “It is unheard of if a planable renovation ensures that travelers can no longer travel to London sustainably,” says director Freek Bos. “This leaves travelers out in the cold for a long time. A popular train must grow and flourish, you are not going to prune it.” He asks State Secretary Heijnen for different decision-making, so that travelers can continue to travel by train from Amsterdam to London and back. “Earlier, the State Secretary called Eurostar’s departure unacceptable. Then she must now also live up to that.”
On Monday, Eurostar CEO Gwendoline Cazenave will come to the Netherlands for top consultations with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, NS and ProRail. However, today State Secretary Heijnen took the plunge after consultation with ProRail boss John Voppen.
Last year, the minister said she still hoped that the Eurostar could continue to run during the renovation of Amsterdam Central. She asked ProRail to do its utmost to achieve this. That ultimately proved unsuccessful. The option of keeping Eurostar’s current terminal open longer was indeed possible, research showed, but at the same time very complex. ProRail was therefore not in favor of this. NS first sided with Eurostar, but eventually accepted the vision of the railway manager.
Move two more times
Ultimately, the departure location of the Eurostar will move to Amsterdam Zuid station, which will be expanded considerably for this purpose. However, that will only be from 2036 at the earliest. This means that the Eurostar trains will move at least three times: to the replacement terminal, then back to the old one and finally to Amsterdam Zuid.
The renovation of Amsterdam Central Station is necessary to allow trains to run much more frequently in the future and to make room for international trains. The platforms will be widened, among other things, as will the railway tunnels. The work is expected to last until 2030.
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