Another company is looking to offer train services from the Netherlands to London and Paris with two stops in Belgium, which would further expand the high-speed train market in the country.
The Dutch regulator Authority Consumer & Market (ACM) confirmed that more plans for a competitor to Eurostar's high-speed trains have been submitted. Heurotrain, believed to be a Dutch-run company, has shared its intentions to run trains from the Netherlands to London and Paris starting from the end of 2027.
Specifically, the company aims to start offering passengers its services in December 2027 on the Amsterdam-London route, which it said would travel through the Channel Tunnel and include stops in Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam, as well as the Belgian cities of Antwerp and Brussels, among others. The ACM notice states that 15 trains would run per day, in both directions.
This news comes one month after train company Evolyn announced the purchase of 12 trains for a new high-speed line from Paris to London in competition with Eurostar – the company's first competitor on the line over which it has held a monopoly in 30 years.
Since the launch of the undersea rail link via the Channel Tunnel in 1994, several companies announced their intention to compete with Eurostar, including Deutsche Bahn. However, no real alternative had emerged until Evolyn presented its plans last month. The line is due to start operating in 2025 and the full fleet of trains should be fully operational in 2026.
Competition on the Paris line
The company also plans to run trains between Amsterdam and Paris, again with stops in Antwerp and Brussels.
This service would run 16 times per day in both directions, two of which would depart from Groningen in the morning and also stop in the Dutch towns of Zwolle and Almere. In the evening, two trains would then continue to these smaller destinations after stopping in Amsterdam on the way back.
A rebranded Eurostar train. Credit: Belga / Jonas Roosens
This can also be considered competition for Eurostar, more specifically on the former Thalys network which has been included in the Eurostar brand following the merger of the high-speed train companies.
Other companies have also announced plans for high-speed trains on the Amsterdam-Paris line, via Belgium, such as Qbuzz and Arriva. The latter also included Groningen in its announcement.
The ACM will now look into whether the proposed train service jeopardises the economic equilibrium of one or more of the concessions involved.
