At the start of next year, NS plans to test out a brand new high-speed service from Amsterdam to Groningen (FINALLY)!
In only 1.5 hours? How?
How will they achieve this? Well, they plan to increase the speed of the train to 200km per hour. Currently, they only travel at 140km per hour. However, this new equipment which will allow the train to travel at such speeds will only be available to NS after 2020, once it’s been tested. It’s not as simple as just increasing the speed, as the railway lines will have to be adapted to the higher speeds. This mixed with missing some stations such as Lelystad means that the journey would only take one and a half hours.
Self-driving trains
They also want to incorporate self-driving trains into the system, as it cuts time and makes things run more smoothly. The prospect is a bit scary and also may lead to a lot of job losses, but we will see how it goes. Depending on how well trials go, this could be with NS in 2021.
The north and the south will be connected again! (and it won’t take forever this time)
What do you think of this new train service? Let us know in the comments!
