A new high-speed train from the NS has recently begun running between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, at a speed of 200 km per hour. Although that, admittedly, doesn’t sound very fast, trains in the Netherlands usually travel around 130 km per hour, so it’s certainly a step in the right direction for public transportation in the Netherlands.
You can already ride this Intercity Next Generation train, introduced by the Dutch Railways, and it will soon be coming to other cities as well. The plan is to replace the existing intercity trains with these Next Generation models in the coming years.
It is estimated that it will take about seven years to replace all intercity trains, so don’t get too excited just yet. Twenty of these new models will run between Belgium and the Netherlands—a route that has received a lot of attention lately because the Dutch, German, and Belgian governments want to launch a three-country train service starting in December.
A total of 99 of these new trains will be introduced, and they will eventually replace the trains running between Amsterdam and Groningen, Leeuwarden, Amsterdam and Enschede, The Hague and Eindhoven, and Amsterdam to Brussels.
The company acknowledges that there may be some teething issues with the new trains in the coming months, but they hope that the increased passenger capacity and comfort will make it all worthwhile. So you can count on getting from Amsterdam to Rotterdam a bit faster when you travel on one of these new trains!
