A new Eurostar route from London to Amsterdam has been announced, but it will not stop in Kent.

KentOnline can reveal passengers in the county are not going to be picked up along the route.

Instead, they will have to travel to London St Pancras to catch the service before travelling back through Kent as they head to mainland Europe.

The decision was made in an effort to minimise the journey time, meaning it will only pick up travellers at Brussels and Rotterdam.

Eurostar chief executive, Nicolas Petrovic, said: "The launch of our service to the Netherlands represents an exciting advance in cross-Channel travel and heralds a new era in international high speed rail.

"With direct services from the UK to The Netherlands, France and Belgium, we are transforming the links between the UK and three of Europe’s top trading nations.

"Our new route marks the culmination of the extensive investment in high speed rail on both sides of the Channel.

"With £1billion investment in our new state of the art trains and enhanced connectivity on the European network passengers can now enjoy fast, seamless rail connections between the UK and mainland Europe and a transformed travel experience."

The route will launch on Wednesday, April 4, and the trains will travel at a speed of around 300kph meaning the journey will take around three hours.

The scheme could see some of the more than four million people travelling from London to Amsterdam by air every year switch to the rail alternative.