FlixTrain applies to offer international train services between Netherlands, Germany
FlixTrain submitted an application to ProRail and the Dutch Authority on Consumers & Markets (ACM) to start an international train connection to and from Germany. The application is for train services between Rotterdam and Oberhausen. The company may also expand the route to include more German cities, Arthur Kamminga of FlixTrain told RailTech.com and Treinreiziger.nl.
If all goes according to plan, FlixTrain trains will run between Rotterdam and Oberhausen, also stopping at Arnhem, Utrecht, Amsterdam, and The Hague, from November 2024. FlixTrain may add other German stops but doesn’t have to apply for them so long in advance.
“We have now made the application for to Oberhausen, but that can also be another destination in Germany. In the Netherlands, you have to apply 18 months in advance. In Germany, you don’t.”
According to Kamminga, whether the application will succeed depends on how much power the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management will give NS in its new concession. State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen wants to award it privately to NS again for ten years, and she may include international routes in the main rail network concession. She said she would give more information shortly after the summer.
Including the international line in the NS concession is “absolutely against European rules,” according to Kamminga. He pointed out plans to waive NS’s 80 million euros annual fee for the concession and a potential subsidy. According to Kamminga, that is illegal state aid. “You give a company a monopoly on a lucrative service from which they make money. There is no reason why NS should get protection in a concession for these lines when it can be done in public access.”
A spokesperson for the ACM told RailTech.com that the new main rail network concession should not affect the Rotterdam to Oberhausen route FlixTrain applied for. “What could still throw a spanner in the works, however, is how much capacity is included in the main rail network concession and how much space is left for open access services,” the spokesperson said. There are still ambiguities on this point, and the ACM asked the Ministry for clarification.
