Amsterdam-Rotterdam-London train journey to take just 4 hours

Eurostar plans to have a direct train connection between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and London before Christmas, the tranist company announced The trip between Rotterdam and St. Pancras station will take only 3 hours and 15 minutes, and from Amsterdam to St. Pancras will take 4 hours. There will be no stop at Schiphol for the time being, AD reports.

The new Eurostar connections will take an hour off the current train trip from the Netherlands to London, on which you have to switch trains in Brussels. The plan is for two daily trains with up to 900 passengers to depart from Amsterdam to London, and vice versa.

Amsterdam and Rotterdam will get similar Eurostar check-ins and waiting lounges as the one on Brussels-Midi station. In Amsterdam the Eurostar check-in - which includes a passport and secuirty check, as passengers on the train to London leave the Schengen area and enter the United Kingdom - will be located at track 15, in Rotterdam at track 1.

"We are trying to have the check-ins and waiting lounges built before December", Marjon Kaper, director of NS International, said to AD. NS and Eurostar are working together on this project. The Dutch railway company already trained engineers and other personnel to work on the new e320 train.

With the direct train connections between the Netherlands and London, Eurostar wants to compete with budget airlines on Schiphol. "Daily there are 60 flights from London to Amsterdam and Rotterdam. An enormous market that keeps growing", Eurostar director Nicolas Petrovic said.

The flight to London only takes about an hour. But when security checks, flight delays and the fact that you need to arrive at the airport well ahead of time are taken into account, Eurostar believes it can compete on time. "And it's about more than time. In the train it's your own time. You can work, have a meeting and never have turbulance. In addition, the CO2 emissions are ten times lower than with the plane."

The new high-speed e320 train, presented by Eurostar on Tuesday, has a top speed of 320 kilometers per hour. The train's security system meets the requirements of the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.