FlixTrain plan trains to the Netherlands from next year
FlixTrain’s bright green trains that are already running in Germany and Sweden may come to the Netherlands next year. Flix notified the Dutch Consumer and Market Authority (ACM) this week and applied for track capacity...Read more
France seems to welcome competition on the rails, yet new services keep getting postponed
AnalysisOnly one competitor to the state-owned railways SNCF currently runs trains on the French network. This is Italy’s Trenitalia, which has been running on the Paris-Lyon-Milan axis since 2020. Although there are quite some plans...Read more
Spanish armada to relaunch British open access bid
An ambitious plan for express trains between South Wales and London, and eventually between Central Scotland and London, may be back on the rails. Grand Union Trains, an ‘open access’ operator was initially refused permission...Read more
Finland’s first open-access rail operator prepares operations, what did their journey look like?
InterviewNewly founded operator Suomen Lähijunat Oy (Finland Commuter trains) has big plans in Finland. “We chipped away at the existing monopoly in Finland on the bus side, and we could very well be at a...Read more
Dutch government to open international connections up to competition
The Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management will allow competition on the international lines to Brussels, Paris, London and Basel, as well as the service between Amsterdam and Berlin. The move is not without...Read moreFlixTrain offers new destinations in Germany and first train to Switzerland
FlixTrain announced an expansion of its network in Germany on Wednesday, which for the first time has a cross-border connection to Switzerland. It includes three new lines with 12 new destinations: Stuttgart – Hamburg, Berlin...Read moreFlixTrain: a change of strategy?
AnalysisThings are moving fast for the privately owned Munich-based firm FlixMobility, which has been running FlixTrains since 2017. The acquisition of the American bus icon Greyhound in 2021 has shown a change in strategy for...Read more
Will open access come to Dutch cross-border train connections?
There is a good chance that in the Netherlands, long-distance cross-border train connections that are part of the main rail network concession would also be established in open access. Open access would be a modest...Read more
Trenitalia requests loan at EIB for ILSA trains
Trenitalia has requested 550 million at the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance rolling stock for the operations of ILSA in Spain and operations under their own name in Italy.Read more
New services for FlixTrain in Germany
With its new winter timetable, FlixTrain is adding 10 new stops to its network from 12 December and almost 20 more destinations will be added to the network next spring. This means that by summer...Read more
Green light for first Dutch open-access train services by Arriva
Arriva is allowed to offer three new open-access train services in the Netherlands from 2023, a breakthrough in the country. The trains will run partly at night, once a week between Groningen and Schiphol and...Read more
Arriva wants to compete with NS with night trains in the Netherlands
Arriva has submitted an application in the Netherlands to run two night trains to Amsterdam from 2023, one from Groningen and one from Maastricht. The rail operator wants to compete with Dutch Railways NS on...Read more
What are the biggest barriers for new entrants on the international train market?
Gaining access to the rail infrastructure and finding suitable equipment. These are the biggest stumbling blocks for private carriers to start an international connection, at least, between the Netherlands and other European cities. “The risks...Read more