Potential shorter journey times for Amsterdam Eurostar

[DanielB]

Due to the COVID related travel restrictions NS got an exemption for serving Brussel Zuid (for passengers embarking in Amsterdam and Rotterdam) with the Amsterdam Eurostar service in March 2021, providing they'd evaluate the effects in the autumn of last year.

The evaluation concluded that carrying passengers between Amsterdam and Brussels is an inhibitory factor for shortening journey times between Amsterdam and London. Also customer satisfaction improved as passengers experienced less unrest caused by passengers refused in Amsterdam/Rotterdam taking the intra Schengen part of the train and trying to get through security again in Brussels.

As a result of this evaluation the Dutch ministry of Infrastructure requested approval from the LOCOV (Landelijk Overleg Consumentenorganisaties OV = Nationwide consultation of consumer organisations in public transport) to amend the franchise of NS and remove the requirement to carry passengers to Brussels. This enables shortening of the stop in Brussel Zuid from 27 to 15 minutes and might result in further improvements in the future.

• Request for approval by LOCOV (in Dutch)
• Evaluation Eurostar Intra-Schengen (in Dutch)

 

[30907]

Very interesting. I hadn't realised it was a requirement to carry NL-Brussels passengers rather than a commercial decision by ES. Or indeed, influenced by pathing issues.

 

[Fragezeichnen]

From British perspective it's strange to hear the word "Franchise" in connection with Eurostar. Does NS International receive some kind of subsidy for it's part in running the Eurostar Service?

On this side of the channel Eurostar is entirely independent commercial service, one of very few regular non-franchise ones, which can provide whatever service it wants. They used to service two intermediate stops between London and Calais, but all services were suspended indefinitely in 2020. The local politicians complained, but there's nothing they can do about it.

 

[DanielB]

From British perspective it's strange to hear the word "Franchise" in connection with Eurostar. Does NS International receive some kind of subsidy for it's part in running the Eurostar Service?

Eurostar doesn't run as an open access service in the Netherlands, but is ran in co-operation with NS under the Hoofdrailnet franchise. Details of this franchise are found here (the international part is on page 45).

NS doesn't receive any subsidy for the Eurostar operations, actually they annually pay 80 million euros to the government for this franchise.