After the Paris-London route, the new Eurostar e320 trains are beginning to circulate between London and Brussels. To accommodate these higher-capacity Siemens trains, the terminal at Brussels-Midi station had to be reconfigured, with an enlarged departure area and an optimised check-in area for the installation of automated passport control. This deployment prepares the launch end 2017 direct connections London-Brussels–Rotterdam-Amsterdam. With two daily return trips to start with, Eurostar will be attempting to compete with Thalys which operates 14 daily frequencies between Brussels and Amsterdam. Unlike the Thalys TGVs, however, Eurostar trains will not stop at Antwerp or Schiphol airport.
