Hook of Holland train station officially reopens, restoring link between UK and Netherlands

‘There’s no such thing as a grand exit via Hoek van Holland,’ say leading rail writers

Bright future: the new tram between Rotterdam and Hook of Holland (Hidden Europe)

The late-running project to reconnect a key ferry link from the UK with the European rail network officially reopens today – to criticism that railway heritage has been lost.

Passengers on the historic crossing from Harwich to Hook of Holland in the Netherlands could once choose from an array of express trains deep into Europe.

But they must now board a tram that runs on line B of the Rotterdam metro network, and later change to the Dutch railway network.

In their book Europe by Rail, Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries describe the link on a journey from Rotterdam to the UK and onwards to Ireland, and write: “It’s odd to depart on such an ambitious journey on a local metro tram.

“There’s no such thing as a grand exit via Hook of Holland.”

The Dutch port’s rail station opened in 1893 and became the continental hub for destinations in Denmark, Poland and Switzerland. After the Second World War, Hook of Holland was for a time a starting point for the Orient Express.

The final Warszawa Express to the Polish capital departed exactly 100 years after the station opened, and since 1993 services have dwindled still further. The Boat Train to Amsterdam was abandoned a decade ago.

Re-orientation: Hook of Holland Haven railway station is turning into a Metro stop (NS (Dutch Railways))

The railway line was closed in March 2017 for what was intended to be a six-month project to convert it to a stop on the Rotterdam Metro.

But the connecting bus for passengers arriving by ferry from Harwich had to run for two years longer than expected.

The new tram runs every 20 minutes, with a journey time of 34 minutes from the Beurs station in central Rotterdam.

Late running: testing new trams on the line adjacent to Hook of Holland’s quayside (RET)

It does not serve the city’s central station, though some long-distance trains are accessible via the intermediate station, Schiedam.

The link is included in the “Dutchflyer” ticket, which offers travel from any Greater Anglia station – including London Liverpool Street, Cambridge and Norwich – to any station in the Netherlands for a one-way fare starting at £55.

Rotterdam is now served three times daily direct from London St Pancras by Eurostar.

One of the routes formerly served from Hook of Holland – via Hamburg and a rail-ferry to Copenhagen – is to end in December when the new schedules take effect across Europe.

The European Rail Timetable reports: “Services between Hamburg and København will cease running via Puttgarden and the Rødby Ferry.

Three daily services will run instead via Padborg and Odense.”

The timetable’s editor, Chris Woodcock, said: “The change on the Hamburg-Copenhagen route is the start of a long-term project, the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, to completely transform travel between the two cities.

“The journey time via the alternative route is roughly the same as now, although it will, of course, increase journey times to and from intermediate points.

“The novelty of trains being transported on a ferry on this route will be no more but, for those wishing to experience this unusual process, it still happens when the Berlin Night Express runs between Berlin and Malmö – and on a regular basis in southern Italy.”

Trenitalia services link Rome and Naples with Messina and Catania in Sicily.