2023-11-24 19:35:33
Published on Nov 24, 2023 at 6:35 p.m.
Bad news for Eurostar, the SNCF subsidiary which has officially joined forces with Thalys. The TGV operator in several European countries will have to give up its direct Amsterdam-London connection for six months, starting in July 2024, due to work in the Venice of the North terminal.
A hard blow for the railway operator which has just launched its new commercial system (app, website, loyalty program), with the aim of doubling its traffic within 8 years, to go from 14.8 million passengers in 2022 to 30 million in 2030.
Political uncertainties
The only reason for consolation: the interruption in Amsterdam is planned for six months, and not a year as was discussed with the local authorities before the summer.
Through the voice of the Minister in charge of infrastructure Vivianne Heijnen, the Dutch government, at this stage unchanged since the last legislative elections which sanctioned the extreme right, confirmed to Parliament the need to carry out important work in the international zone , “non-Schengen”, from Amsterdam-Centraal station. This is to enlarge it and modernize the flow of customs formalities, essential since Brexit.
Eurostar will therefore have to find a palliative for this connection to the Channel Tunnel and Great Britain, currently operated at a rate of four trains per day, in 4 hours 09 from city center to city center. Under penalty of transferring a good part of the traffic to air mode, while the London-Amsterdam TGV version only dates from 2018.
All other Eurostar TGVs circulating on the continent, mainly with the garnet trains of the ex-Thalys, including the Paris-Amsterdam or Amsterdam-Brussels, are not affected by this work, limiting their commercial impact for the subsidiary of the SNCF.
Unknown suitors
Eurostar, currently a monopoly, must consolidate its market share and protect itself, while various new entrants are coming forward to the Dutch competition authorities. The latest name to date, Heurotrain hopes to launch Amsterdam-London journeys from December 2027, with stops at Schiphol, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels. Recently, another unknown, Evolyn, announced its intention to compete with Eurostar on Paris-London from 2026… subject to finding the right trains.
By December, the French company must find a solution to put tickets for summer 2024 on sale. As the problem only arises from Amsterdam, for the construction of the “UK terminal”, it is not not excluded from continuing to provide direct London-Amsterdam flights from Saint-Pancras, and in the opposite direction making a “technical stopover” in Brussels, to ensure the customs formalities required by the United Kingdom. As this was already practiced before spring 2018, offering a competitive advantage to KLM or British Airways.
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