Eurostar to restart routes to Amsterdam and Disneyland
Eurostar services between London and Amsterdam will restart next week, with trains to Disneyland Paris set to commence again in early August.
The direct route connecting the UK and the Dutch capital will start up again on July 9, although for the time being it will be limited to just one train a day, with services departing London St Pancras at 11.04 and arriving at Amsterdam Centraal at 16.11.
Return journeys still require a connection in Brussels, where passengers will have to go through passport controls and security screenings.
But it will be a few more weeks until passengers can make the two-and-a-half-hour trip from London to Marne-la-Vallée, the closest station to Disneyland Paris, with trains expected to resume on August 2.
Most Eurostar routes have been suspended since March, when many European countries began to impose travel bans in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus, with only the route between St Pancras and Gare du Nord in Paris remaining operational (albeit with significantly reduced services).
A gradual reopening of borders has allowed the rail company to resume operations, although stringent new health and safety measures have been introduced to minimise the risk of infection spreading between passengers.
Every passenger will be required to wear a face mask, both on the train and in the station, while Eurostar has issued an assurance that travellers will be seated at safe distances from one another, carriages will undergo a deep clean before every journey, and on-board teams will regularly disinfect high-contact areas.
Yet there is still some uncertainty over the extent to which travellers will be able or willing to journey abroad this summer.
The Netherlands does not currently require visitors to go into quarantine, although the UK’s current travel rules stipulate that all arrivals – including returning Britons – must do so for 14 days.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is also advising against all but essential travel to France and the Netherlands, making it harder to obtain travel insurance.
However, the Government is expected to announce a series of ‘air bridge’ agreements in the coming days which would allow travellers to move between certain countries without having to self-isolate and will most likely cause the FCO to downgrade the relevant travel warnings.
France is believed to be part of a first group of countries to have agreed in principle to a network of air bridges connecting the UK to the continent, while reports indicate that another air bridge with the Netherlands could be announced later this week.
However, with travel still an uncertain prospect, Eurostar has started offering flexible fares, which can be exchanged free of charge up to 14 days before departure.
