Eurostar to Netherlands: could be a lot faster?

I took the eurostar to Rotterdam last weekend. A good journey, but I'm really surprised at the length of stops at the station.

We stopped at Lille for at least 10 minutes, Brussels close to 20, unsure exactly how long at Rotterdam but must have been a least 5 minutes, probably a lot more.

Could easily get journey times down from slightly over 4 hours from London to Amsterdam to closer to 3 if these stops were more standard 1-3 minute ones.

This would massively increase usage (especially when they get direct trains back from NL sorted, if ever) IMO. 3 hours tends to take a lot more marketshare from airlines than 4 hours.

Is there some sort of reason why these really long stops have to be timetabled in? The brussels one was especially poor I thought, as there screens were saying a 'quick stop' but actually the timetable suggests nearly 20 minutes!

Staff changes and catering and refuse swaps? I agree the stops are too long.

If you spent 10 minutes in Lille, the train either got there early or departed late. The stop at Lille is only supposed to be 4 minutes.

Re. the long stops in Brussel: when the direct Amsterdam service launched, the stop in Brussels was 4 minutes. It looks like those have now been increased to at least 10 minutes, and even 17 minutes in the case of the 11:04 from London. This is probably a combination of passengers needing more time to get off (getting hundreds of people off + luggage isn't done quickly), a crew change in Brussels, and pathing through the tunnel towards Brussels North.

The line between Brussels South and Brussels North is heavily congested, it's the busiest railway line of Belgium and planning a train through it is not easy.

When the service first started, the evening train left London at 17:31. Now it leaves at 17:16 to get to Rotterdam at the same time. Before it was one of the few times I've seen an e320 do 300 km/h, yet alone the 320 they were designed for.

404250 said:

Staff changes and catering and refuse swaps? I agree the stops are too long.

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And threading a path out between HS1, LGV North, HSL-1, HSL-Zuid and the approaches to Brussels, Rotterdam and Schiphol/Amsterdam.

In BRU the tunnel is not that much congested mid-day, thats mostly a peak hour problem. They just put about any train across as soon as there is some space-last second platform alterations for domestic trains are many. Congestion is more rife on the over saturated classic route toward ANtwerp as there is no hi-speed on the side there.

dutchflyer said:

In BRU the tunnel is not that much congested mid-day, thats mostly a peak hour problem. They just put about any train across as soon as there is some space-last second platform alterations for domestic trains are many. Congestion is more rife on the over saturated classic route toward ANtwerp as there is no hi-speed on the side there.

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I think this is the problem the Mechelen rail bypass (currently under construction) is supposed to solve? So by the sounds of this thread, the time savings when it opens could be quite significant. It'll also increase speeds from 100km/h to 160km/h, though only for about three km.

http://www.tucrail.be/en/projects/in-belgium/rail-bypass-mechelen