Eurostar still threatening to scrap trips from Amsterdam Centraal

Train travel provider Eurostar is still threatening to scrap all international trips from Amsterdam Centraal temporarily. According to NS, the terminal's construction for trips to Londen will be finished on time. However, according to Eurostar CEO Gwendoline Cazenave, there are other issues that obstruct a reliable service.

"Without a solution to capacity issues, Eurostar may be forced to temporarily suspend services, a step we hope to avoid but cannot rule out without operational clarity," Cazenave wrote in a letter to two ministries, railway company NS and rail infrastructure manager ProRail.

Eurostar wants to use more routes to Belgium and France to avoid bottlenecks at a part of the high-speed line in Zuid-Holland. Due to construction errors at viaducts, the speed of the trains is very limited.

In addition, Eurostar is demanding that 400-meter-long trains at Amsterdam Centraal be made easier to use. Cazenave also wants the Royal Marechaussee to perform free border checks from now on. This should provide a more level playing field with airports where the government pays for the Marechaussee's services. The railway company wants promises regarding these subjects by October 15.

Earlier, Cazenave also announced in an opinion piece in Het Financieele Dagblad that she is considering suspending train services from Amsterdam to London and Paris. A renovation of Amsterdam CS initially threatened to cause a months-long suspension of train services to London, but ultimately, moving passport controls to Brussels offered a solution.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management called the Eurostar trains to London and Paris "important rail connections for the Netherlands." A spokesperson responded, "We are in discussions with Eurostar about the developments and the points they mention in their letter and are confident that they will continue to offer the important and successful connections between Amsterdam and London and Amsterdam and Paris in the future."