NS Hispeed

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Planned services

NS Hispeed is the name given to a rail operator in The Netherlands that will operate high speed trains over the HSL Zuid high speed line. The company is a cooperative between Nederlandse Spoorwegen (90%) and KLM (10%), and will operate both domestic and international trains. NS Hispeed was previously called NS Internationaal.

1 Formation and Services
2 High-speed operations
3 Rolling Stock
4 External links

[edit] Formation and Services

The company was formed in 2001 under the name High Speed Alliance to operate high speed trains on the HSL Zuid line, which was then under construction. In 2007 the former international subdivision of NS (NS Internationaal) was also merged into NS Hispeed.

As of December 2007, NS Hispeed trains operate over a number of routes both within the Netherlands and across the borders into Germany and Belgium. These include ICEs to Cologne and beyond, as well as several intercities to Berlin.

[edit] High-speed operations

In Belgium, the HSL-Zuid will connect with the HSL 4 line. The majority of NS Hispeed services will terminate at Amsterdam Centraal station. These will include two trains per hour to Rotterdam, two trains per hour to Breda and one train per hour to Antwerp and Brussels. All trains from Amsterdam will stop at both Schiphol Airport and Rotterdam. In addition to the Amsterdam services, NS Hispeed will also operate eight trains daily from Den Haag Centraal via Breda to Brussels. Services outside the Netherlands will be operated in conjunction with NMBS, the railway company from Belgium.

NS Hispeed is also the Dutch partner in Thalys and ICE International.

[edit] Rolling Stock

NS Hispeed has ordered eight brand new trains from Ansaldobreda, S.P.A., with NMBS ordering a further four sets, which will be used on the Dutch domestic services and the NS Hispeed services to Brussels. These sets will be eight carriages long and have a top speed of 250 km/h.