Eurostar London-Amsterdam LIVE: What it's like to travel on the first ever direct passenger train service
The new service takes just three hours and 41 minutes
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Your support makes all the difference.The first ever direct train from London to Amsterdam to be open to the public departs from London St Pancras on 3 April 2018 at 8.31am – and The Independent has a bagged a seat on the historic service.
In just three hours and 41 minutes, bar any hiccups, the Eurostar will make its way to Amsterdam station and arrive at 1.12pm (Amsterdam is one hour ahead of the UK).
The much-anticipated service has a limited number of seats left for its inaugural journey, with business class seats costing up to £260. However, there is still no direct return leg; a deal between the UK and the Netherlands on “juxtaposed border controls”, allowing British officials to check passports of passengers at Amsterdam and the intermediate step of Rotterdam, has not yet been finalised.
This means passengers have to take a Thalys high-speed train to Brussels and connect there for Eurostar for the foreseeable.
Follow all the latest from The Independent's journey below
Time flies when you're listening to Raymond Blanc OBE tell you about the food offering on board the Eurostar. The owner and two Michelin star chef of Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Oxfordshire is also the train company's culinary director. He talks us through a few special items added to the menu to celebrate the new Dutch connection: Gouda cheese and a "double Dutch" tonic water. The latter can be paired with cognac if you're feeling particularly decadent (I am). Hey, it's six o' clock somewhere.
We're in the Netherlands! Next stop: Rotterdam. The city is likely to get a boost from the new direct train service - it takes around three hours from London - and is hoping to siphon off some of the over-saturated Amsterdam tourism market. Press officer Kim Heinen tells us this is already happening, with travellers starting to opt for a city break there to enjoy Dutch culture for a fraction of the price.
Rotterdam is anywhere, anywhere alone. But it's also a real place. And we're here! It's 12.32pm and we've pulled into the majestic port city. I'm waiting in vain for my champagne (aka my third alcoholic drink this morning - do I have a problem?) but it doesn't look promising. Back to the cognac I guess.
There are no more stops between here and Amsterdam - we're speeding across the Netherlands and should be at Centraal Station in 20 minutes. The city already attracts more than 16 million visitors a year, a number that's only likely to increase with even greater access. Chatting to us about the city, Robert Lechner, concierge of the Pulitzer hotel, describes Amsterdam as "an old lady with a young heart" - the buildings date from the 17th century, but the energy is young, fresh and dynamic.
Shame we'll only have an hour and five minutes there.
We discuss how we're going to spend our precious 65 minutes in Amsterdam. Um, look at a canal? Take one good inhale of Dutch air?
The service gets into the city at 1.12pm - hurrah! - and we catch the train back at 2.17pm. But this time it won't be a snazzy direct Eurostar. Instead we'll head back to Brussels on the Thalys train, then change at Brussels. It will take four hours and 14 minutes, rather than the whizzy three hours and 41 minutes we experienced on the outbound journey.
And we're here! The historic first direct passenger train from London to Amsterdam has pulled into Amsterdam Centraal station at 1.18pm - six minutes late - with a journey time of three hours and 47 minutes.
It's passed in a flash and has been a genuinely enjoyable experience. Now, all that's left to do is soak up the city for the next hour before we head back. It's been real.
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