NS International


NS International, formerly NS Hispeed, is the rail operator in the Netherlands that operates international inter-city and high-speed train connections to Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland.
NS International is part of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen. It currently operates both high-speed and non-high-speed services. Further international semi-high-speed and high-speed services are to be introduced in the near future.

History

NS Hispeed was formed in 2007 when the former international subdivision of NS, NS Internationaal, was rebranded as NS Hispeed. It is a founding member of the Railteam alliance, with a 10% share in the group. In June 2014, they changed their name to NS International. Trains running from Amsterdam to Brussels and Paris operate on the HSL-Zuid.

Services

SeriesTypeRouteFrequencyNotes
100ICEAmsterdam Centraal - Utrecht Centraal - Arnhem Centraal - Oberhausen Hbf - Duisburg Hbf - Düsseldorf Hbf - Köln Hbf - Siegburg/Bonn - Frankfurt/Main Flughafen - Mannheim Hbf - Karlsruhe Hbf - Offenburg - Freiburg Hbf - Basel Bad Bf - Basel SBB1x per day=ICE 43, reservation required
120ICEAmsterdam Centraal - Utrecht Centraal - Arnhem Centraal - Oberhausen Hbf - Duisburg Hbf - Düsseldorf Hbf - Köln Hbf - Frankfurt/Main Flughafen - Frankfurt Hbf5x per day=ICE 78, reservation required
140IntercityAmsterdam Centraal - Hilversum – Amersfoort Centraal - Apeldoorn – Deventer - Almelo - Hengelo - Bad Bentheim - Rheine - Osnabrück Hbf - Bad Oeynhausen/Bünde - Minden - Hannover Hbf - Wolfsburg Hbf - Stendal - Berlin-Spandau - Berlin Hbf - Berlin Ostbahnhof5x per day to Berlin, 1x per day to Hannover, 1x per day to Bad Bentheim=IC 77, reservation recommended
9200Intercity DirectAmsterdam Centraal - Schiphol/Den Haag Hollands Spoor - Rotterdam Centraal Breda - Noorderkempen - Antwerpen-Centraal - Antwerpen-Berchem - Mechelen - Brussels National Airport - Brussels-North - Brussel-Centraal - Brussel-Zuid/Midi1x per hour
9300ThalysAmsterdam Centraal - Schiphol - Rotterdam Centraal - Antwerpen-Centraal - Brussel-Zuid/Midi - Paris Nord10x per dayReservation required
9900ThalysAmsterdam Centraal - Schiphol - Rotterdam Centraal - Antwerpen-Centraal - Brussel-Zuid/Midi - Lille Europe1-2x per dayReservation required
Amsterdam - Bourg-Saint-MauriceThalysAmsterdam - Schiphol - Rotterdam - Antwerpen-Centraal - Brussels-South - Chambéry-Challes-les-Eaux - Albertville - Moûtiers-Salins-Brides-les-Bains - Aime-La Plagne - Landry - Bourg-Saint-Maurice1x per week in winter
Amsterdam - MarseilleThalysAmsterdam - Schiphol - Rotterdam - Antwerpen-Centraal - Brussels-South - Valence TGV - Avignon TGV - Aix-en-Provence TGV - Marseille1x per week in summer
9100EurostarAmsterdam - Rotterdam - Brussels-South - Lille-Europe - London St. Pancras International3x per dayDirect service from London to Amsterdam; transfer in Brussels for the other direction

Regional cross-border services are not part of NS International, nor was the CityNightLine from Amsterdam to Munich and Zurich.

Rolling stock

NS International is the Dutch partner in three high-speed international services, Eurostar, Thalys and ICE International. Although the rolling stock for these services are pooled, each partner has purchased and owns a number of units in each fleet. NS owns three ICE 3M EMUs used for the ICE services, and two PBKA EMUs operated by Thalys, all of which are quadricurrent.
NS International ordered 16 V250 trains from AnsaldoBreda, with NMBS/SNCB ordering a further 3 sets. They were used on Dutch domestic services and NS International services to Brussels. These sets are eight carriages long and have a top speed of 250 km/h. They entered service in December 2012 - five years later than originally planned. They were taken out of service the following month due to numerous technical issues. Four months later only two of the 9 already delivered trains were still capable of performing test runs.