This April, a new direct train service is going to be opened on the route Amsterdam – London. This is one of the most-travelled flight routes in Europe, but will now be just three hours and 41 minutes by train — taking all together, this is going to be cheaper and faster than air travel.
Let us hope that this becomes faster and more frequent., and an economical success.
Too bad that DB gave up about direct Frankfurt – London and Cologne – London connections.
And when the channel tunnel was planned there were many plans for an extensive network of night trains connecting to London. Can we have those, too, please?
For the moment: In May I am going to travel from Vienna to London by train. And it will still be almost as fast as flying: I leave the evening before quite late on board a night train (ÖBB Nightjet) to Cologone, change for a train to Brussels, from Brussels take the Eurostar and I arrive in the center of London around 2pm. To make it to London before 2pm, if I count in the time for going from the airport to the center in London, I would have to get up around 5am in the morning to be at Vienna airport in time. Unfortunately the night train trip, while arriving almost the same time, will be more expensive. The unfair part of transport competition in Europe: why is there no VAT on international flights, but on train tickets there is?
