Italian rail company to buy Fyra trains from NS: report

The Fyra trains in NS's failed high speed railway project are getting a new owner, according to newspaper AD. Italian railway company Trenitalia is buying 17 of the 19 trains, train manufacturer AnsaldoBreda confirmed to the newspaper.

According to Italian media, Ternitalia is paying about a third of the price that NS originally paid for the trains. The compensation NS will receive amounts to around 20 million euros, AD calculates.

NS originally paid 200 million euros for the trains, but the final cost of the failed project amounted to 772 million euros, according to a parliamentary inquiry in 2015. AnsaldoBreda paid NS 125 million euros in a settlement amount. The settlement involved AnsaldoBreda buying the trains back from NS, with the agreement that NS will receive part of the turnover should the trains ever be sold to someone else.

A spokesperson for NS told the newspaper that the Dutch rail company is aware of the deal, but not involved with it yet.

The original intention with the Fyra trains was a high-speed line between Amsterdam and Brussels, according to the Volkskrant. After 5 years the first Fyra train traveled on this new line in December 2012. A month later, NS pulled the train off the rails again after part of the train fell off in Belgium. In June 2013, NS finally scrapped the use of Fyra trains and deployed regular trains on the route.

The cabinet invested 8 billion euros into the line, but NS failed to put a high-speed train on the route. The case led to a parliamentary inquiry, which eventually led to State Secretary Wilma Mansveld of Infrastructure losing her job.