The announcement – which came alongside the news that tickets are now on sale for the service – explained that while direct trains will run from 26 October, engineering works mean that the direct service will be unavailable until mid-December.

Customers looking to travel during those times will instead be encouraged to travel via a connecting Thalys train, the preexisting route between the cities which has been active since 2018.

New Route

While direct travel had been possible between London to Amsterdam since 2018, the return journey required riding a Thalys service with a stop off in Brussels to go through passport control and security, before swapping to a Eurostar for the remainder of the trip.

According to reports, this stop added around an hour to the journey, which is now expected to last around four hours from Amsterdam, and three and a half from Rotterdam.

This change in policy allowing for the direct route – which will launch 26 October – is the result of an agreement between Belgium, the Netherlands and France allowing UK border force to be stationed in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.