This international train service is expanding in the Netherlands (and your wallet’s going to love it)

Budget travellers rejoice! Even more international train services may be hitting Dutch tracks, and they promise to be way more affordable than NS International.

German travel company Flix, known for its cheerful lime-green FlixBuses and budget-friendly prices, is now expanding its high-speed rail travel network.

Dubbing it a “new era of train travel in Germany and Europe” in a press release, the company hopes to make rail travel more accessible and sustainable — without the hefty price tag we’ve all come to expect from trains in the Netherlands.

Dutch routes and launch dates are still unknown

While the press release doesn’t mention any specific new routes that FlixTrain will operate in the Netherlands, the company’s expansion in the lowlands has been in the works for several years.

Flix first applied to the ACM (Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets) for permission to run a route between Oberhausen and Rotterdam in May 2023.

The proposed route was intended to serve various major stations along the way, such as Arnhem, Utrecht, Amsterdam Centraal, and The Hague.

“We see FlixTrain as a European product,” CEO André Schwämmlein says in the new press release. “Starting from our home market, we also want to make the service available in other countries.”

Speaking to AD, Schwämmlein confirms that the Netherlands will be on that list of countries.

However, prices will stay low

“We’re generally considerably cheaper than other providers,” Schwämmlein tells AD, while promising that FlixTrain’s prices will stay wallet-friendly.

Currently, FlixTrain operates a limited number of connections to and from certain train stations in the Netherlands (supplemented by carriers such as Eurobahn and DB):

• Arnhem
• Enschede
• Hengelo
• Oldenzaal
• Venlo
• Zevenaar

With prices hovering around €60 for their Berlin to Enschede route, they’re a far cry from the €107.40 you could be paying with NS International.

What do you think of FlixTrain’s proposed expansion to the Netherlands? Share your thoughts in the comments below.