As Europe looks to make environmental gains, state and individual interest in rail travel is blooming, giving rise to renewed demand for trains – particularly as a mid/long-distance alternative to flying.
This has seen several new services introduced, notably night trains that run between major destinations. The latest addition to this list will also stop in two Belgian cities as transport company Qbuzz signed up for a call by the Dutch Government to run trains between Amsterdam and Paris.
The subsidiary of Italian railways Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane is aiming to launch trains between the two cities in January 2027, and announced that the trains would stop in Antwerp and Brussels en route, according to its application submitted to Dutch regulator Authority Consumer and Market (ACM).
The application calls for seven trips in both directions per day with the high-speed Frecciarossa 1000 train on the connection and would include stops in Schiphol (airport) and Rotterdam, as well as in the Belgian cities of Antwerp and Brussels. Qbuzz also has plans for Amsterdam-Berlin and Amsterdam-Eindhoven connections.
Stepping away from aviation
Last week, an application in response to the same call was made by Arriva, a subsidiary of German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, which is the biggest competitor of railway company NS on the Dutch rail network.
It announced plans to run a train every day between Groningen (north of the Netherlands) and Paris from June 2026, adding that this service will call at Antwerp-Central and Brussels-Midi.
“International rail has an important role to play in supporting the sustainability agenda by encouraging people away from aviation for shorter distance inter-city connections. This type of innovative thinking is good for competition which in turn benefits passengers," said Arriva Group CEO Mike Cooper.
The provisional schedule would see the train leave Groningen at around 05:30 and call at Antwerp-Central shortly after 08:30 after making stops in Zwolle, Almere, Amsterdam, Schiphol (airport), and Rotterdam. It will arrive in Brussels-Midi at around 09:15 before continuing to Paris (Gare du Nord station).
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The return journey makes the same stops in reverse. It would leave Paris at 19:15 and would arrive in Brussels around 20:40. Between the morning and evening service, Arriva plans an additional connection linking Amsterdam and Paris in the middle of the day and intends to submit more applications for future train services from several regions in the Netherlands to Belgian and French cities.
Both companies already provide regional public transport in the Netherlands. If the plans become concrete, it will mean additional competition for Eurostar (which merged with Thalys last year) on the Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris line.
The next step is for the ACM to assess the applications and determine whether these new train connections compete with NS's existing train connections. The regulator highlighted the need to safeguard "the economic balance" of the national rail operator.
