A new high-speed rail line linking Brussels to Amsterdam opened on Sunday, a showcase project in European plans to promote fast trains as an environmentally friendy alternative to air travel. With trains on the line reaching speeds of up to 300 kph, travellers can now save 49 minutes and be in Brussels just 1 hour and 53 minutes after departing Amsterdam.
The travel time by rail between Cologne and Brussels will be cut by half an hour to 1 hour and 47 minutes. Thalys, the train operator owned by France's railway SNCF, its Belgian counterpart SNCB and Deutsche Bahn, says it expects a 65 percent rise in traffic between Pais and Amsterdam by 2013.
Much of this will be due to passengers abandoning cars and airplanes in favour of the fast, environmentally friendly trains, Thalys says. It hopes the allure of high-speed rail will result in an extra 500,000 passengers in 2010.