Hook of Holland to restart services in September

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

 Hook of Holland, one of the great Continental gateways, which was closed in March 2017 will be re-opening its rail link.

The project will be operational two years behind schedule and was closed for a six-month project to convert it to a stop on the Rotterdam Metro.

The key European link for a century was the ferry service between Harwich and Hoek van Holland, to use the dutch name.

However, the connecting bus for passengers arriving by ferry from Harwich ran for two years longer than expected.

From UK cities like Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow as well as London direct boat trains were operative to Harwich. Just the London link now remains.

Mark Smith, the international rail guru said: “Stena Line sell Rail & Sail tickets from London or any Greater Anglia station to Amsterdam or any Dutch station covering the British train, Harwich-Hook ferry, and Dutch trains.

Daytime service and time-effective overnight one is available with comfortable cabins. One can easily fly to Netherlands , Germany and beyond.

Direct trains ran to Basel and Berlin, with onward connections to Moscow are available from the grand station at Hook of Holland.

Due to cheap air travel spreading  across Europe, demand for train-ferry-train links has declined.

The Stena Line runs twice-daily ferry between Harwich and Hook of Holland, the once . The once-mighty Continental rail terminus was relegated to part of the Metro system for the second-biggest city in the Netherlands.

It is noted that the project went up by 25% of the original budget. Due to the discovery of contaminated ground and traces of asbestos there were initial hold-ups. There were further delays because of signaling software.

Rotterdam gained its own direct connection from London with Eurostar   trains via Brussels during the protracted project. There are  three daily trains on the route currently.

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• UK and Netherlands link restored, official reopening of Hook of Holland train