Ticket sales for Fast-to-Amsterdam start, new Paris service on track

In August 2023, Belgium’s state-owned rail company NMBS and Dutch Railways NS announced that the so called ‘Benelux train’ would in future operate via two different services each with 16 trains a day running from the end of this year. A new fast train service between Brussels-South and Amsterdam-South - under the name Eurocity Direct - will only stop at Antwerp-Central, Rotterdam-Central and Schiphol completing the entire journey 45 minutes faster than the current InterCity connection.

In addition, the existing service will continue under the Eurocity name, but its route will be shortened and from Brussels-South only run as far as Rotterdam-Central. Stops Brussels-Central, Brussels-North, Brussels Airport-Zaventem, Mechelen, Antwerp-Berchem, Antwerp-Central, Noorderkempen and Breda remain.

Are prices reasonable?

The new service will operate from 15 December. Ticket sales started today. From Brussels to Amsterdam, prices for a ticket for the new Eurocity Direct are between 25 and 64.1 euros, to Rotterdam on the Eurocity fares cost between 13.1 and 32.7 euros. On the Eurocity, domestic travel within Belgium will continue to be possible. NMBS tickets remain valid within Belgium. This is not the case on the Eurocity Direct.

NS is deploying new ICNG trains on the Eurocity Direct run and already started trial runs this month: passengers booking a ticket between Amsterdam and Brussels will have the opportunity to travel on one of the new trains in the near future. On the Eurocity connection, current Dutch ICR trains will gradually be replaced by the NMBS’s I11 trains starting December.

Domestic travel: "chaos threatens"

Passenger organisation TreinTramBus is unhappy claiming the extra trains between Brussels and Amsterdam will come at the expense of domestic travel within Belgium. ‘While the number of trains between the Netherlands and Belgium may double, the number of trains between Antwerp and Brussels will decrease by a quarter,’ stresses TreinTramBus president Peter Meukens. From 15 December, only three instead of four IC trains per hour will run via Mechelen between the country's two largest cities.

‘In the Netherlands, domestic travellers are also allowed to use the trains, but not in Belgium. The NMBS is banning Belgian passengers from travelling from Antwerp to Brussels on the Eurocity Direct. We cannot understand that,’ Mr Meukens continues. ‘This will be chaos, because already now travellers are having to stand.’