[AMcWhirter]

Interesting rail news emerged today in the Netherlands.

Thalys has held a monopoly on the busy Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris HS (high-speed) route since the 1990s. It is short of capacity seeing as no additional capacity has been offered since the late 1990s. Thalys is regularly heavily booked.

The EU wants to encourage more rail competition. The Netherlands has an eco agenda and wants more travellers to take the train.

To me it seems ridiculous that Thalys, now merged with Eurostar, should hold a monopoly on this important route (which would also include stops at Rotterdam and Antwerp).

I mean it’s not like having to operate to London and coping with the strict Tunnel regulations.

By comparison Amsterdam-Paris has few technical issues.

Now a well-backed operator, called Qbuzz, has announced plans to compete effective January 2027.

Qbuzz is backed by Italy’s FS. It will deploy Frecciarossa units which have been successful on Paris-Milan and within Spain.

Here’s the report from Luchtvaart.nl

https://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nieuws/categorie/22/spoorwegen/ook-qbuzz-wil-schiphol-per-trein-met-parijs-verbinden

IRJ later published the news in English. But there’s a paywall.

Qbuzz applies to operate Dutch cross-border open-access services

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