Train stations in Rotterdam

Rotterdam Centraal is the station to use. Every Eurostar and international train calls here, and the city centre starts at the front door.

Which Rotterdam station to use

Rotterdam has six stations: Rotterdam Centraal, Rotterdam Blaak, Rotterdam Noord, Rotterdam Zuid, Rotterdam Alexander and Rotterdam Lombardijen. Centraal is the one that links Rotterdam to the rest of Europe. Trains from Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Brussels, Paris and London all call here.

Rotterdam Blaak is the second station worth knowing. It is a useful stop for the Markthal and the Cube Houses if your hotel or plans are on that side of the centre. Noord, Zuid, Alexander and Lombardijen are local stops in residential and business districts, and Alexander also has a metro connection. You only need one of them if you have booked accommodation nearby, and none has Eurostar or other international departures.

Trains from Amsterdam and the Dutch hubs

Rotterdam sits on the main Randstad corridor, so trains are frequent and you rarely need to plan far ahead. For Amsterdam you can choose speed. A standard journey takes about 66 minutes with no change, and an e-ticket starts at €20.20. Intercity direct trains use the high-speed line and get from Rotterdam Centraal to Amsterdam Zuid in under 40 minutes, and they also call at Schiphol Airport. They save about 25 minutes to Amsterdam Zuid and about 26 minutes to Schiphol compared with a regular Intercity.

Intercity direct trains also run south to Breda. The Hague is about 26 minutes from Rotterdam with no change, from €6.40 with an e-ticket. Utrecht takes about 42 minutes, from €13.80, and Schiphol Airport about 43 minutes, from €16.40. All of them run with no change and more than 80 trains a day.

Night trains run every night between Rotterdam and Utrecht via The Hague, Leiden, Schiphol and Amsterdam Centraal, roughly hourly after the last regular services. On Friday and Saturday nights there are extra late trains, including Rotterdam to Eindhoven. The fare is the same as in the daytime.

International trains: Brussels, Paris and London

Eurostar, which now runs the former Thalys services, handles the main international routes from Rotterdam Centraal. Trains to Brussels Midi take about 1 hour 10 minutes and leave roughly hourly through the day, with Antwerp Centraal about 30 minutes along the way. Paris Gare du Nord takes about 2 hours 37 minutes. Fares in Eurostar Standard start from around €29 one way to Brussels and €35 to Paris, and rise as trains fill.

London has two options. A direct Eurostar runs from Amsterdam through Rotterdam Centraal and Brussels to London St Pancras in roughly 3 hours 15 to 3 hours 30 minutes. The alternative is a Brussels train followed by a change to a London train at Brussels Midi, and both trains can be booked as one journey on the Eurostar site. In either case border checks happen before you board, so you walk straight out of the train at St Pancras.

The two London routes need different arrival plans:

Non-EU travellers on London journeys should expect EU Entry/Exit System procedures at the border.

EuroCity trains also run to Antwerp and Brussels and are booked through NS International, which has an office at Rotterdam Centraal.

Getting from Rotterdam Centraal into the city

Walk out of the main entrance and you are already in the centre. The Markthal, the Cube Houses and the waterfront are nearby.

For anything further, the metro is quickest. Centraal is on metro lines D and E, and trams and buses also leave from the station. Beurs, the main shopping interchange, is two stops away. From there, metro line B runs to Hoek van Holland Haven, next to the Stena Line ferry terminal for Harwich. RET runs the metro, tram and bus, and the same contactless card or phone works on all of them.

Taxis are available at the station, and baggage storage is available there too.

Tickets and fares

For domestic journeys, tap in and out with a contactless bank card, a phone or an OV-chipkaart. This is OVpay: you check in at the gate, check out at the end, and the day's fares leave your account in one payment the next day. Card check-in always gives you second class without a discount, which suits a short stay.

A single-use chip card bought from a machine or desk carries a €1.60 surcharge, which does not apply to e-tickets bought online in the NS app or on the NS website.

Intercity direct trains need a supplement of €3.20 on top of your ticket when the journey includes Schiphol Airport and Rotterdam Centraal, in either direction. Trips between Rotterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Zuid do not need it. Buy it in the NS app or at a machine, or tap an OV-chipkaart or OV-pas on the red supplement post on the departure platform. It covers one direction only, so a Schiphol day return needs two. You do not need the supplement if you travel on an international ticket, such as an Interrail or Eurail pass.

Practical traps

• Your phone can pay instead of your ticket. The gates read barcodes, QR codes and bank cards. If a screenshot or PDF of a Eurostar ticket sits on the same phone as your bank cards, the gate can read the card and charge up to €20. Save the ticket to your wallet app and switch off contactless payment, or print it.
• The London terminal is a separate step. For a direct London train, go through the main gates and up to the Eurostar terminal on platform 2. Ticket checks close well before departure, so arrive early.
• Tap out as well as in. If you tap in with a card and forget to tap out, you may pay too much. If you check in by mistake, checking out again at the same station within 60 minutes cancels the journey.
• Two trains, one platform. Platforms have an a end and a b end, and two trains can share one. Read the letter on the screen as well as the number.