There appears to be little that can be done about the situation which means that rail travel from Amsterdam to London will not be possible for the coming summer months. ProRail says there are simply no alternatives that adequately guarantee safety. This is a setback for the carrier Eurostar, NS’ partner and for passengers. But also for the planet.
“It’s another jab at what you want to promote,” says Paul Peters, Lecturer in Sustainable Transport and Tourism at Breda University of Applied Sciences. This is train travel, not plane, which will soon become the dreaded alternative. “It’s a sad story, but you’d still expect a little more creativity from the railroad.”
Busy consultations between rail director ProRail, deluded Eurostar and partner NS and State Minister for Infrastructure Heijnen yielded nothing until Sunday afternoon. “Eurostar is disappointed and we are disappointed,” a ministry spokesman said. “But ProRail states that it cannot do the work safely if people are traveling and construction workers are working at the same time. Then we have to accept that, because safety comes first.”
The work is extensive and needs to be done now
This means that from June next year it will not be possible to travel from Amsterdam to London with Eurostar for at least seven months and possibly even eleven months. It all relates to the large-scale work on the east side of Amsterdam Central Station. This must be done quickly because – also for safety reasons – it would be irresponsible to renovate and rebuild later.
The main hitch is the limited space available at Amsterdam Central Station for passport checks and necessary baggage. These rulings are inevitable because the UK is no longer a member state of the European Union. And the station is too cramped and crowded to stop the checkpoints elsewhere in the station, ProRail says.
There is no other option but to demolish the existing Eurostar terminal before the new terminal at Amstelpassage is ready. The rover traveler organization is furious about it, and the FNV and NS union call it a “terrible shame” because communication is likely to be out for a long time.
Eurostar expects an additional 21 aircraft per day from Schiphol
The direct train connection from Amsterdam to the British capital has existed since 2020 and is operated by Eurostar in association with NS. Thousands of people use it every day on the 4 trains that run every day. According to Eurostar, the connection is a commercial success and 1.6 million people have already bought a ticket for the line. If this connection did not exist, the company calculated, another 21 aircraft would have to fly from Schiphol every day.
It is not yet known what the exact consequences will be for passengers boarding the plane in Rotterdam and for passengers who want to travel from London to Amsterdam. Brussels may be the starting point for now. The ministry takes into account that Eurostar will cancel the entire connection between London and the Netherlands.
The renovation and expansion of the Eurostar platform at Amsterdam Central Station was intended in part to stimulate train travel to London. For example, the intention is to increase the number of trains that will run to London to five a day.
For the Secretary of State, the ambitions don’t stop there. Heijnen expects to open a new international terminal and an additional platform at Amsterdam Zuid terminal after 2036. Peters, a professor of sustainable transport, has his reservations about the latter intention: “The government is not convincing here in its genuine desire to go green. This is also part of the aviation concourse, which has An interest in good international access by rail. But why would a railroad have to pass an airport so badly?”
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No trains from Amsterdam to London for months
This is due to the large-scale work at Amsterdam Central Station. This is not good news for the lack of flying.
