New Eurostar route: London-Amsterdam

[Geegeela]

Eurostar launches London-Amsterdam route

 

[Scarlett]

Eurostar launches London-Amsterdam route

@Admin, is this sort of heinous thread title basis for excommunication from AFF?

 

[Quickstatus]

@Melburnian1 may be interested

 

[Mattg]

This is very exciting for me! Look forward to trying out the service later in the year.

 

[rock86]

If the prices remain steady and as stated could save you over 200AUD in airport departure taxes as well, if you're willing to take the train.

 

[Mattg]

I gave the new Eurostar service from London to Amsterdam a try yesterday. It was a fairly comfortable journey at just over 3.5 hours. As I was staying near St Pancras station in London, the trip took only slightly longer than the time it would take to get to the airport, check in, wait around, etc. The price was about the same as a British Airways ticket at the time of booking.

You need to turn up around 45 minutes before departure at St Pancras. You go through security and then passport control (including for arrival into the EU) before boarding the train in London.

I had chosen a window seat, so was a little annoyed to be given a new seating assignment when I went through the automatic gate. The machine just spat out a new boarding pass when I scanned my ticket, and there was nobody I could speak to to complain or get the seat changed. I was re-allocated an aisle seat at a table, directly opposite a stranger who I then had to share the legroom with for the whole trip. Not ideal but nothing I could do about it. The train was 100% full anyway.

Boarding commenced 30 minutes before departure and we then left right on time. We called in at Brussels and Rotterdam en-route, and arrival in Amsterdam was on time.

The train is modern and comfortable, with power sockets at each seat and free wifi that worked only intermittently. There are toilets at the end of each carriage, and slightly overpriced snacks & drinks are predictably available.

You can still only take this train in one direction, i.e. from London to Amsterdam. It's not yet possible to travel from Amsterdam to London without changing trains in Brussels. This appears to be due to the fact there are no passport control facilities at Amsterdam Centraal.

I would use this service again if it was cheaper or the same price as flying.

 

[Mattg]

A few photos...

Waiting for boarding in London



Boarding



The seats




Arriving at Amsterdam

 

[serfty]

Interesting re the seat swap - after booking were you able check / change seating during the period up to check-in?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I looked at this for travel in July from London to Amsterdam, also staying at St Pancras. BA from LCY was cost effective, faster, and included an open bar (I paid £65 for the BA flight including bag, which was pretty good)

 

[Mattg]

Interesting re the seat swap - after booking were you able check / change seating during the period up to check-in?

No idea, sorry. I didn't even think to look as I didn't think this could possibly happen.

I looked at this for travel in July from London to Amsterdam, also staying at St Pancras. BA from LCY was cost effective, faster, and included an open bar (I paid £65 for the BA flight including bag, which was pretty good)

Indeed, BA is often cheaper. This time it wasn't cheaper to fly, but if that is the case next time I do this trip, I would probably just use BA.