NS and Deutsche Bahn plan up to six daily trains between Amsterdam and Rhine-Ruhr region

NS and Deutsche Bahn are assessing plans for a new cross-border train service linking the Netherlands and Germany. If the project goes ahead, passengers could travel directly between Amsterdam and the Rhine-Ruhr region on the new route from 2028 onward.

Under the plans, the service would operate six daily return trips. Trains would leave Amsterdam and call at Utrecht and Arnhem before entering Germany via Zevenaar. NS and Deutsche Bahn have yet to decide which station in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region will serve as the route’s German terminus, with cities such as Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Dortmund among the possibilities.

The new rail service fits within NS’s ambition to increase the number of international train connections, a spokesperson for the Dutch rail operator said. The service is expected to be operated with NS’s latest intercity trains, marking the first time the carrier’s blue-and-yellow rolling stock would be used on a direct connection to Germany. At present, cross-border services on the route are operated by Germany’s red-and-white ICE trains.

The spokesperson emphasises that the new train service is still under investigation. “We want to start with three trips per day in both directions and expand this to six,” the spokesperson said. It is already possible to travel from Amsterdam to Cologne in the Rhine-Ruhr region every two hours using an ICE train. The new service to the region would be in addition to that, the spokesperson explained.

As part of preparations for the new route, the rail operator has submitted a notification to the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), as required 18 months ahead of any launch, according to the spokesperson. She added that several further procedures still need to be followed, including requesting track capacity from rail infrastructure manager ProRail.