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Train Travel / Delays / Channel Tunnel / Eurostar / Thalys / Amsterdam Travel / Holland Travel / Belgium Travel / → All Tags

We Rode The New High Speed Rail Link Between Brussels And Amsterdam!

Poor European railways. What with the Eurostar debacle, we all forgot about the news they were hoping we’d read last week – the completion of the high speed line between Brussels and Amsterdam, making train trips from Paris and London to weed city a viable alternative to flying.

The fast Thalys trains already plied the Paris-Brussels part of the line, but had to slow down once they hit Belgium and picked up travellers from the Eurostar. On 13 December, though, they started running at high speed along the whole line, shaving 51 minutes off the journey from Paris to Amsterdam (from 4hr 9min to 3hrs 18) and 49 from Brussels (from 2hr 42 to 1hr 53). So you can now get from London to Amsterdam in 4hrs 16: not bad if you factor in the time to get to the airport, wait at the airport, collect your luggage and get into town.

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