Test drivers
From Brussels to Amsterdam, ticket prices for the new Eurocity Direct are between 25 and 64.1 euros, to Rotterdam on the Eurocity between 13.1 and 32.7 euros. Domestic travel is still possible on the Eurocity so NMBS tickets are also valid within Belgium. That is not the case on the Eurocity Direct.
The NS is using new ICNG trains for the Eurocity Direct and started a trial run this month: passengers who book a ticket between Amsterdam and Brussels will have the opportunity to board one of the new trains soon. On the Eurocity link, the current Dutch ICR trains will be replaced by NMBS I11 trains from December.
chaos
The passenger group TreinTramBus is not happy that the extra trains between Brussels and Amsterdam are dependent on domestic connections. “The number of trains between Holland and Belgium will double, but the number of trains between Antwerp and Brussels will decrease by a quarter,” the chairman Peter Meukens affirms.
From December 15, only three instead of four IC trains per hour will run across Mechelen between the country’s two largest cities. “In the Netherlands, domestic passengers are allowed to use that train, but not in Belgium. NMBS prohibits train passengers from Belgium from taking the Eurocity Direct from Antwerp to Brussels. for us to understand this at all,” Meukens continues. “That will be chaos, because passengers already have to stand.”
From December there will be a new traditional train connection between Brussels and Paris (via Mons), which was temporarily revived last summer after the Olympic Games in the French capital. The name Eurocity was already on the link; it is unclear whether it will be retained.
2024-10-16 16:41:00
#train #Brussels #South #Dutch #capital #runs #Amsterdam #South
