Plans have been submitted again for a competitor to the Eurostar high-speed trains. This time it concerns Heurotrain, which wants to run trains from the Netherlands to London and Paris from the end of 2027, each time via Antwerp and Brussels.
Heurotrain, which, according to specialist media, is behind Dutch entrepreneurs, reported the connections to the Dutch supervisory authority, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). In concrete terms, Heurotrain would like to start on the Amsterdam-London route from December 2027, i.e. through the Channel Tunnel, with stops in Schiphol, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels, among others. Fifteen trains would run per day, in both directions.
Recently, another operator, Evolyn, announced plans to compete with Eurostar in the Channel Tunnel from 2025 with a Paris-London route.
Heurotrain also wants to run trains between Amsterdam and Paris, again with stops in Antwerp and Brussels. That would also be competition for Eurostar: the former Thalys network is now also called Eurostar. There would be sixteen connections per day, two of which would depart from Groningen in the morning and would also stop in Zwolle and Almere. In the evening, two trains from Paris would continue after Amsterdam to Groningen.
More companies
Other companies have already announced plans for high-speed trains on the Amsterdam-Paris line via Belgium, such as Qbuzz and Arriva. The latter also included Groningen in his registration.
The Belgian railway company NMBS is a shareholder – for 18.5 percent – of Eurostar. It remains to be seen to what extent all plans can be realized in the coming years.
2023-11-14 19:08:57
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