Construction work at Amsterdam’s Centraal station is on track for completion in December, clearing the way for a return of Eurostar direct service to London through the Channel Tunnel, and expansion of its other services.
The direct connection which also stopped at Rotterdam, has been disrupted for a year by the construction, which left the station without the space needed for customs and immigration clearance of passengers headed to London, which is outside Europe’s Schengen free-travel zone.
The announcement by Dutch rail authorities and Eurostar comes not long after a warning from Gwendoline Cazenave, the head of Eurostar, that the rail operator’s trains, which serve destinations in Belgium, France and Germany as well as the Netherlands, might pull out because of poor condition of Dutch infrastructure.
The Amsterdam to London route is a key corridor; before the Eurostar connection it was the busiest air route within Europe. Last year, traffic between Amsterdam and London on Eurostar grew by 38%, despite the need to change trains in Brussels because of the border issue.
