Eurostar to up timetable as bank holiday weekend spurs recovery
James ChappleEurostar is set to significantly expand its timetable following a recovery in bookings for travel to France, Belgium and the Netherlands as Covid travel restrictions recede sufficiently for people to plan getaways on the continent.
The operator will offer five daily London-Paris returns and three daily London-Brussels returns during September and October, with one of the daily Brussels services also running onwards to Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
It comes after Eurostar bookings for travel between the UK and the continent almost doubled (up 98%) during the period from 4 August to 14 August, the period immediately following the UK government’s decision to lift quarantine for fully vaccinated amber list arrivals who were inoculated in the EU.
Previously, the easing of amber list quarantine rules only applied to arrivals fully vaccinated by the NHS in the UK.
The doubling in bookings is compared with those taken in the preceding two weeks, from 21 July to 3 August.
Eurostar has also put on an additional 39 trains for travel this month owing to demand, with this demand culminating over the August bank holiday weekend.
The operator has also hailed "the gradual return of the weekend break"; Eurostar said bookings for weekend trips between London and Paris in August and September, made between 5 August and 17 August, have more than doubled compared with the same period at year.
From 6 September to 1 November, eight daily return services will operate – five in each direction on the London-Paris route and three in each direction between London and Brussels, with one each way extended to Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
Fares lead in from £39pp. All tickets can be exchanged up to seven days prior to departure, although travellers will have to pay any fare differences.
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