Main region(s) Netherlands Parent company NS Headquarters Utrecht, Netherlands Founded December 2007 | Route km operated 426 km Track length no own tracks Parent organization Nederlandse Spoorwegen | |
 | ||
Website www.nsinternational.nl/en Profiles | ||
NS International (formerly NS Hispeed) is the rail operator in the Netherlands that operates international intercity and high-speed train connections to Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris and several other destinations.
Contents
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.
Ns international travelling with a singel use chipcard
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.
Services
NS International trains operate over a number of routes across the borders into Germany and Belgium (and on to France). These are:
Other cross-border services (from Enschede, Maastricht, Nieuweschans, Venlo, Heerlen and Roosendaal) are not part of NS International, nor is the CityNightLine from Amsterdam to Munich and Zurich.
Rolling stock
NS International is the Dutch partner in two high-speed international services, 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.