Together with its international transport partners, NS connects cities and regions together in Germany, Belgium and France. Last year, the number of journeys sold rose by 6.4% to over 3 million international journeys.

Introduction of IC Brussels on the HSL South

NMBS and NS are busy with the preparations and trials for running the Intercity Brussels service on the high-speed line, aiming to start this train service as of 9 April 2018. This train will run 16 times a day, as it does now: The departure and destination station will be Amsterdam Centraal for 12 of those trains, with 4 trains going to and from Den Haag HS. This will cut half an hour off the journey for passengers between Amsterdam and Brussels.

Thalys

NS and its partner Thalys have further expanded the transport capacity to France by running double train sets more often.

ICE International

Just like with Thalys, we are expanding the ICE offering to Frankfurt by running double train sets. The loss of the CityNightLine from DB has been compensated for by alterations to the early and late ICE International service timetable.

Eurostar

Eurostar is starting a direct train link from 4 April 2018 onwards from London to Amsterdam. There will still be a changeover at Brussels Midi when travelling to Britain until passport facilities are arranged at the Dutch departure stations. Terminals for this are under construction at Amsterdam Centraal and Rotterdam Centraal. NS has given drivers and train managers courses on how to run these trains.