Eurostar has finally gotten all its ducks in a row for direct Amsterdam-to-London service starting in December, but a no-deal Brexit could force it off the rails.
The high-speed train service that links the UK with Paris, Brussels and a few more cities was extended to Amsterdam in mid-2018, but passengers from Amsterdam and Rotterdam have had to take a Thalys train to Brussels and change there to Eurostar, because there was no provision for UK border checks in those cities. Unlike most of Europe, the UK is not a member of the Schengen agreement that eliminates border checks among its members.
The London-to-Amsterdam run takes under four hours, but the Brussels change on the return added about an hour for the change and security and customs checks. Those will now be done in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
The route has proven hugely popular, drawing, as expected passengers from airlines on what has been Europe’s densest air route. It’s been popular enough that a third daily train was added this summer, and Eurostar would like to push that up to 5 as soon as it can find “paths,” allotments of time and priority on the rails.
