by Nancy Trejos; USA Today
Eurostar, the high-speed rail service of the United Kingdom, will launch new London to Amsterdam service on April 4.
Passengers will be able to travel from St. Pancras station in London direct to the Netherlands in three hours.
Tickets will go on sale on Feb. 20 for $47 one way.
“The launch of our service to the Netherlands represents an exciting advance in cross-Channel travel and heralds a new era in international high-speed rail,” said Nicolas Petrovic, CEO of Eurostar. “With direct services from the UK to The Netherlands, France and Belgium, we are transforming the links between the UK and three of Europe’s top trading nations.”
The new service will be launched with two trains a day departing at 8:31 a.m. and 5:31 p.m. respectively.
Initially, passengers will travel direct from London to Amsterdam and Rotterdam. On the return journey, they will connect through Brussels, where passport controls and security screening will take place.
The connecting journey is a temporary measure while the UK and Amsterdam governments work out an agreement to enable passport checks when passengers depart Amsterdam. That is expected to happen by the end of 2019.
