Eurostar passport checks move to Brussels, adding to trip time

Eurostar journeys between the Netherlands and London will take an extra hour from mid June, when passport checks are moved from Amsterdam’s central station to Brussels temporarily, the railway company’s chief executive Gwendoline Cazenave confirmed on Wednesday.

The current direct trip takes three hours, 52 minutes but that will go up to four hours, 45 minutes from June 14, when the Eurostar terminal in Amsterdam closes because of renovation work.

The €1 billion operation means that passport checks have to take place somewhere else while the renovation work is under way.

However, passengers will no longer be expected to arrive an hour early for their journey and that “will save time”, Cazenave told the AD. Eurostar is also increasing the frequency of trains to Brussels to eight per day.

The journey back will not change because passport and security checks can still be carried out in London.

Last year the number of people travelling between Amsterdam and London rose 38% and 1.1 million tickets were sold, Eurostar said. Direct services between the two cities started five years ago and there are currently four trains a day.