Eurostar has told Telegraph Travel that passengers may have to wait until Easter 2018 to hop aboard its long-awaited direct service from London to Amsterdam.

Originally set to depart St Pancras International in December 2016, the service was delayed by 12 months due to the “complex” nature of the route. Now passengers will have to wait until next spring to take advantage of the new high-speed rail link.

Eurostar says negotiating the route to Amsterdam has been complex Credit: ALAMY

“There are four countries involved and it’s complex, but we have tested the trains on the track and will be up and running in earnest by Easter 2018,” a spokesperson told Telegraph Travel.

The operator denied that the latest announcement amounted to a new delay, claiming an inaugural service would still depart from London this December as planned.

That service, however, will be reserved for Eurostar partners and the media, not the general public.

“Our plan is to do an inaugural service at the end of the year and ramp it up to be ready for Easter, which is our busiest time of the year,” said the spokesperson.

When the new route does finally launch it will use Eurostar’s new E320 trains, which offer complimentary Wi-Fi and free access to onboard entertainment such as films and documentaries.

The trains, which are already used on the London to Paris route, will call at Brussels and Rotterdam before terminating at Amsterdam Centraal.

The outbound journey is expected to take 3 hours 50 minutes while the return journey will take 4 hours 20 minutes, due to a longer stop in Brussels on the way back.

Eurostar remains tight lipped about how much passengers can expect to pay for a ticket to Amsterdam. However, the new route may trigger a price war between the rail operator and airlines, which should make it cheaper than ever to visit the Dutch capital.

Dozens of flights currently hop between London and Amsterdam every day, some taking as little as 45 minutes to get between the two cities. On the face of it the train seems far more time consuming, but once travelling to the airport and waiting around in the terminal has been factored in there is very little in it.

“It’s not just about competing with the airlines,” said the spokesperson. “When we go to a new destination we grow the market even more. A lot of people decide to go to the destinations because we go there.”