NS International

NS International

NS International's ICE 3
Main region(s)	Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom
Parent company	Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Technical
Length	426 km (265 mi)[1]
Track length	Doesn't own any railway tracks.
Other
Website	www.nsinternational.com

NS International, formerly NS Hispeed, is a rail operator in the Netherlands that operates international intercity and high-speed connections to several European cities. The operater is a subsidiary of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

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.^[2] In June 2014, they changed their name to NS International. This change was done due to the change in the operations of the high speed line from NS Hispeed to NS Reizigers.^[3]

Former NS Hispeed logo

Services[]

The company operates, together with its partners, direct services to Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Regional cross-border services (from Arnhem, Enschede, Hengelo, Maastricht, Nieuweschans, Venlo, Heerlen and Roosendaal) 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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7]

Class	Illustration	Type	Top speed		Number	Built	Notes
			mph	km/h
Current rolling stock
Series 43000		Electric multiple unit	186	300	2	1997	Used for Thalys service
DBAG Class 406		Electric multiple unit	199	320	3	1999	Used for ICE International service
Siemens Vectron		Locomotive	99	160	4	2019-	Used for the Nightjet Amsterdam - Innsbruck / Vienna, Nightjet Amsterdam - Zürich and incidental for the intercity Amsterdam - Berlin.
Future rolling stock
ICNG		Electric multiple unit	124	200	20	2019-	Intercity Nieuwe Generatie (New Generation Intercity) A further 79 trainsets have been ordered, by the NS. Those will be used for service within the Netherlands and to Belgium via Antwerp and Brussels.
Former rolling stock
V250		Electric multiple unit	155	250	16 ordered	2008-2010	Trains were to be used for Fyra, but the order was cancelled in 2013 and the whole Fyra project abandoned.[8]

See also[]

• Dutch railway services
• Train routes in the Netherlands

References[]

External links[]

• NS International