Many of us are thinking about summer holidays right now and rightly so. Where should you go in Europe for a long weekend city break? Is it time to discover somewhere new and off the well-trodden tourist path? All valid questions, of course. Yet we’re casting our minds forwards to Christmas because a new European city just got that bit easier to travel to come December.
Eurostar has announced this week that travellers will be able to book and travel on direct journeys from London St Pancras to Belgium’s second biggest city, Antwerp-Centraal, from 14 December.
At the moment, getting from London to Antwerp by train can take around three hours and 15 minutes and involves getting the Eurostar to Brussels then changing onto a separate Belgian train for the rest of the journey to Antwerp. The new direct route cuts travel time by more than half, bringing the journey to around two hours and 45 minutes.
Over the past year, there’s been lots of discussion on whether Eurostar would be introducing new direct connections to European destinations like Switzerland, Cologne and Frankfurt. The rail firm has pledged to launch these proposed new routes in the early 2030s, but Eurostar will bring in this new direct route to Antwerp later this year.
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Up to four trains a day, which currently run between London and Amsterdam, will introduce the direct connection to Antwerp with existing stops at Lille-Europe, Brussels-Midi, Rotterdam-Centraal and Amsterdam-Centraal.
However, there is a slight catch to this new direct route. You can only travel to Antwerp directly from London on the outward leg of the journey, and it doesn’t cover the return part of the trip. Eurostar said this is due to customs and border issues and that a return direct route through to London would require dedicated UK border and customs facilities at Antwerp-Centraal, which it has no current plans for.
