Eurostar Will Take You to Antwerp, but It Won’t Bring You Back

In just over a month, Belgium’s second city joins the Eurostar map as a direct stop. From December 14, some London St Pancras to Amsterdam services will call at Antwerpen-Centraal, cutting the trip to about two hours and 45 minutes. Today, travellers have to change at Brussels-Midi and continue on a domestic SNCB train, a journey of roughly three hours and 15 minutes once the connection is included. Tickets are already on sale, with one-way fares from £51.

There is one significant catch, and it runs in the other direction. Antwerpen-Centraal has no UK border or customs facilities, so Eurostar cannot pick up London-bound passengers there. Anyone heading back to Britain still needs a combined SNCB and Eurostar ticket, taking a Belgian train to Brussels-Midi to clear passport and security checks before boarding. In practice that makes Antwerp a faster destination but not yet a faster departure point, a limitation travellers should factor into any city-break plan.

Eurostar announced the new stop over the summer, framing it as a way to offer a more comfortable city-centre-to-city-centre trip on its London–Amsterdam line. For the railway, it is a relatively simple win: the trains already pass through Antwerp on the way to the Netherlands, so adding the call opens a new market without new rolling stock. The bigger question is whether border checks can eventually be arranged at Antwerp itself, which would make round trips straightforward.

For visitors, the timing is good. Antwerp’s Christmas season is in full swing by mid-December, and the city’s draws include the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, MoMu fashion museum, the Museum aan de Stroom and the Grote Markt, plus neighbourhoods such as Borgerhout that reward exploring beyond the centre. Book the outbound direct train, then price the return via Brussels at the same time so the whole trip fits together, and leave enough margin in Brussels for Eurostar’s check-in window.

Sources: Time Out London, Euronews