Eurostar to London may not stop in Brussels in the future
Eurostar to London may not stop in Brussels in the future
The Eurostar from Amsterdam may not make a stopover in Brussels South in the future. This is evident from a request for advice of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW) at consumer organisations.
With the change to the current concessions, the ministry wants to formalize the current situation that the Eurostar no longer makes a stop in Brussels South. The station’s previous has several advantages, including a shorter journey time to London.
Past travel restrictions
In March 2021, the corona-related travel restrictions, the more extensive ticket and border and lower passenger numbers based control on NS and Eurostar to temporarily deviate from the agreement by no longer letting passengers get off at Brussels-South station who board in Amsterdam or Rotterdam. This means that the stop in Brussels South is then only used to let passengers board in Brussels in the direction of London. The application would be that an evaluation would take place in autumn 2021
Evaluation
From the evaluation, NS and Eurostar can conclude that taking passengers from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to Brussels South is an inhibiting factor for shortening the travel time between the Netherlands and London, which is an important ambition given the substitution of traffic. It is expected that the realization will be accelerated in the future by not serving Brussels-South. A separate Eurostar will then run from Brussels.
Secondly, the report shows that not including travelers in the Netherlands and Brussels South on the Eurostar has resulted in benefits since March 2021. For example, the security checks are robust and intended to avoid ‘wiping’ the front part of the train, which is one of the most important security procedures due to the border crossing into the United Kingdom.
In addition, there will be positive developments on Brussels-South from the Netherlands. Moreover, passing the station would not have led to complaints. To reach Brussels, you can also travel via the faster Thalys or the slower IC Brussels. According to the NS and the Eurostar, the number of travelers to Brussels who use the Eurostar would be very small with fewer than 10 travelers in the time before corona.