Another transport company has signed up to run trains between Amsterdam and Paris. After Arriva last week, it was Qbuzz’s turn to announce such plans on Monday. With both companies, the trains would stop in Antwerp and Brussels along the way.
Qbuzz is aiming for January 2027 for the start-up of the Amsterdam-Paris connection, according to the application submitted to the Dutch regulator Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). The application refers to seven journeys in both directions per day, with stops along the way at Schiphol and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and in Belgium at Antwerp and Brussels. Qbuzz would use the Frecciarossa 1000 high-speed train on the connection.
The transport company, currently a relatively small player in the Netherlands, also has plans for Amsterdam-Berlin and Amsterdam-Eindhoven connections. The transport company is a subsidiary of the Italian railway Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. Qbuzz says it has reserved 200 million euros for the plans.
Arriva also wants to go to Brussels
Last week, Arriva, which, like Qbuzz, already provides regional public transport in the Netherlands, announced plans to run a train between Groningen and Paris every day from June 2026, with stops in Amsterdam, Antwerp and Brussels, among others. Arriva is part of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn.
The companies are already announcing the plans because the Dutch government has indicated that it wants to make the international rail connections part of the main rail network, unless other applications are submitted in time. She would like to award the concession for the main rail network to the Dutch Railways (NS), which would allow that rail company to continue to provide the most important connections after 2025.
This article is originally published on bruzz.be
