More and faster trains will run between Belgium and the Netherlands from the end of next year. However, an often wished-for train between Brussels Airport and Amsterdam will not be launched.
From the end of 2024, twice the number of intercity trains will run each day on the high-speed line between the Netherlands and Belgium. This means that 32 such trips will run each day (instead of the current 16), Dutch railway company NS and Belgian railway operator SNCB announced.
A new, faster connection will be added in 2025, which will travel between Amsterdam-South and Brussels-Midi in around two hours – 45 minutes less than the current journey time. This will account for the additional 16 trips between the two countries.
The faster connection will include stops in Schiphol (the country's biggest airport), Rotterdam and Antwerp-Central. "For this connection, NS will use the new Intercity train (ICNG), which will travel on the high-speed line at a maximum speed of 200 km per hour," the company said in a statement.
The shorter journey time is also made possible by fewer intermediate stops and the new starting point Amsterdam-South, which is closer to the high-speed line than Amsterdam-Central. It is hoped this will make it a viable alternative to Thalys, which already runs high-speed trains between Brussels-Midi and Amsterdam Centraal.
Fewer stops
The so-called "Intercity Brussel" trains currently running from Brussels-Midi to Amsterdam Centraal call at Brussels Airport. Somewhat controversially, the fast connection with a new timetable (see below) will not include these stops, meaning they will lose their direct connection to Amsterdam and passengers will instead have to change at Rotterdam.
The current Intercity Brussel connection will be shortened, instead travelling between Rotterdam Centraal and Brussels-Midi, making stops in Breda, Noorderkempen, Antwerp-Central, Antwerp-Berchem, Mechelen, Brussels Airport, Brussels-North and Brussels-Central from the end of 2024. This service will also run 16 times per day.
The existing schedule and the new route side by side. The faster trains skip Brussels Airport and Breda. Credit: NS
"This keeps the city of Mechelen directly connected to the Netherlands and passengers to and from the Brussels airport retain a direct train. Travellers from The Hague, Utrecht and Amsterdam will transfer via Rotterdam Centraal," NS noted.
The company also stressed that the travel time for people who take the train from Brussels Airport to Rotterdam and switch there to board the faster ICNG to Amsterdam will remain comparable to that of the current connection. The exact timetables and ticket prices for the new services will be calculated by SNCB and NS in the coming months.
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In the first half of this year, Brussels was NS' most popular international destination with an average of around 39,000 tickets sold each month to Brussels. After Brussels, Antwerp was the second-most popular destination.
With the arrival of these Intercity trains and the current Thalys trains, a total of 47 trains a day are expected to run between the Netherlands and Brussels in the 2025 timetable. Meanwhile, some 40 high-speed trains and up to 40 classic trains depart daily from Brussels to a foreign destination. Besides expanding connections to the Netherlands, there are also plans to launch a new rail link between Brussels and Paris.
