New trains ordered for the Brussels to Amsterdam route
The Dutch rail company NS has ordered another 18 new trains from the French train builder Alstom. The new trains will be used on the Amsterdam to Brussels route. Once the trains have entered service they will provide an extra 8,200 seats on the high speed rail link between the two cities.
The order comes on top of a previous for 79 of the new extra fast inter-city trains. The trains have a maximum speed of 200km/h. At a press conference held on Monday NS said that the 18 trains ordered for the Brussels to Amsterdam route constitute an investment of more than 200 million euro.
The Inter-City New Generation (ICNG) on the Brussels to Amsterdam route will be made up of 8 carriages.
"With this the new fleet will have greater capacity than the current trains to Brussels. This is needed to deal with future growth in passenger numbers”, the Dutch rail company said.
The new trains are to be a permanent replacement for the Fyra. The Italian-built trains were taken out of service after just a few months due to a string of technical defects.