TIPTOE THROUGH THE TULIPS WITH EUROSTAR
The list of departures on the Eurostar screens at St Pancras International on April 4 provided a welcome tonic to observers who had sought expansion of direct daily services to European mainland business and tourist hubs beyond the regular destinations of Paris and Brussels. There it was, the 08.31 to Amsterdam calling at only Brussels Midi, Rotterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Centraal, right next to the romantic canals of the Dutch capital city.
In recent years Deutsche Bahn has unsuccessfully attempted to launch Frankfurt services using German ICE trains, and Eurostar itself has run relatively infrequent trains to ski resorts and the Rhone valley. The exception has of course been the daily trains to Marne-la-Vallée for Disneyland Paris.
The Amsterdam train has been a long time in its gestation with serious efforts to reach the Netherlands by through trains from London for the Christmas market of 2016 using its new ‘Velaro’ Class 374 e320 16-coach EMUs. Unlike the Class 373 original Eurostar sets, the Class 374s have ‘distributed power’.
Competition
A press taster train, which ran on February 20, was judged a resounding success, with a record fastest run to Brussels in 108min 4sec timed by David Haydock. The omission of intermediate stops on this leg was determined by the imperative of reaching Rotterdam in 3hrs from city-centre to city-centre toprovide competition with up to seven daily flights from London City airport that take an hour from terminal to terminal, but a good deal longer for access at each end, unless one happens to start from Docklands.
Those who were fortunate to be invited to sample Business Premier on the first day of regular timetabled services were ushered into the lounge area and plied with croissants, fresh orange juice and hot drinks from the smartly dressed hosts, before being escorted to set Nos. 4013/4014.
Business Premier was in the leading coach, which had
