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My Amsterdam holiday got cancelled. So I took photos of a snowy Luton Airport Parkway instead

Should have started on the 10th of December - but definately by Easter 2018 - they have done pretty much all the testing and crew training - just the usual Borders / Passport bureaucracy malarkey to nail down..


3 hrs 50 to the Dam ....got to be a winner. No more Luton Airport shite and £4 junk food on Easyjet ...(which no one ever buys anyway) ....
Any guess on the pricing? I love Eurostar.
 
Any guess on the pricing? I love Eurostar.

I asked my ex E* mate the other day - like me he is a retired old git , so no knowledge. However I cannot see it being much more different than present Brussels fares with the standard Benelux fare on top, - they have to be competitive and these nice new trains have 40% more capacity than the old 373 sets. Seats to fill. Love the idea of going fast with just Brussels / Antwerp and Rotterdam calls.

When in the New Year you make enquiries - do so via Ffestiniog Travel -who apart from being Welsh , run a great travel agency and provide good local jobs + they get a cut off the commission to support that fine pair of railways.
 
Is it just going to be the one a day, or are there plans to do a couple more? 0840 is a right arseache if you need to connect from outside London and an evening train would allow for day trips for business people which would then be able to compete with the planes...
 
Is it just going to be the one a day, or are there plans to do a couple more? 0840 is a right arseache if you need to connect from outside London and an evening train would allow for day trips for business people which would then be able to compete with the planes...

Full timetable not yet issued - but likely to be 3 each way , each day to start with...expect deep checks on arrival back in London ! ......
 
Should have started on the 10th of December - but definately by Easter 2018 - they have done pretty much all the testing and crew training - just the usual Borders / Passport bureaucracy malarkey to nail down..


3 hrs 50 to the Dam ....got to be a winner. No more Luton Airport shite and £4 junk food on Easyjet ...(which no one ever buys anyway) ....
I don't know how it will compare for weather resilience. Obviously the tunnel itself is pretty much 100% snow proof but it doesn't seem to take much snow to bring the railway to a halt.
 
Funnily enough I got a ride to Brussels on the then very new and totally crap Fyra HS trains - December 2012 - the ones that ran for about a month before being banned by the SNCB and withdrawn , anyway had a relaxing stay in the Dam and set off back in the middle of a frozen landscape with about 4 inches of snow - (the canals were totally iced up and you could walk round the city on them !)

Anyway - on this day these crappo trains were OK , but there was a set of points playing up at Schipol (West) , so we stood for about 25 mins whilst some stalwart got them clipped up - - we went non stop to Antwerp then fast to Brussels Midi only - there was a good load of E* passengers on board - , and to be fair to the Belgians they gave us top priority and the connection was made ...:thumbs:

My mate went back to Gatwick on E/Jet and was delayed for hours ...
 
I don't know how it will compare for weather resilience. Obviously the tunnel itself is pretty much 100% snow proof but it doesn't seem to take much snow to bring the railway to a halt.
The trains were all running fine the day that my flight was cancelled.
 
If you're not too particular about days of the week (basically not Fri/Sat morning), it's £50 each way to Amsterdam on Eurostar:

Train to Amsterdam | London to Amsterdam | Eurostar


Eurostar always do cheap deals in the first few months of the year (to get some cash in) , and of course the Brussels trains load much lighter than the Paris ones. Presume also less bag carriers attending pointless meetings there in the near - next to near future !
 
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