The Hague, the Dutch seat of government and home to over 500 international organisations, is pushing to restore its direct rail connection to Brussels in Belgium by 2029. The city, which hosts institutions like the International Criminal Court, the United Nation’s International Court of Justice, and Europol, currently lacks a direct passenger link to the…
Tag: Berlin
GoVolta to launch Amsterdam – Antwerp – Ghent – Paris route on 14 December as Berlin services expand and Hamburg link ends
Dutch train operator GoVolta has announced a major expansion of its cross-border services, with a new daily Amsterdam to Paris route set to launch on 14 December 2026. The company is also increasing its Berlin services to six times a week from July, while suspending its Hamburg link due to low passenger numbers.
GoVolta to halt Amsterdam to Hamburg service and focus on trains to Berlin
Dutch private train operator GoVolta will stop running trains from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Hamburg in Germany, train spotter Martijn van Vulpen reports.
RIGA | Baltā Kaza – Riga Ghetto – Latvian Academy of Sciences
August 2025. We’re travelling to the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and more specifically their respective capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Are they interconnected by rail? Yes, but not in the most straightforward or userfriendly way possible. The Rail Baltica project should remedy this. Unsurprisingly though, this megaproject faces political and budgetary hurdles. It…
Italo plans €3.6 billion challenge to Deutsche Bahn with major expansion into Germany
Italian high-speed rail operator Italo is preparing a major expansion into Germany with a €3.6 billion investment plan aimed at challenging Deutsche Bahn’s dominance of the country’s long-distance rail market.
Nox Mobility secures €2 million in pre-seed funding for new night train service
Nox Mobility, a Berlin-based startup, has secured €2 million in pre-seed funding to develop a new generation of overnight rail services featuring fully private rooms. The funding round was led by IBB Ventures, with additional support from Italian investor Tommaso Lucca and industry figures such as Dr Patrick Andrae, co-founder and CEO of HomeToGo.
LATVIA | Jugendstil in Riga ft Riga Art Nouveau Centre and Janis Rozentāls and Rūdolfs Blaumanis Museum
August 2025. We’re travelling to the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and more specifically their respective capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Are they interconnected by rail? Yes, but not in the most straightforward or userfriendly way possible. The Rail Baltica project should remedy this. Unsurprisingly though, this megaproject faces political and budgetary hurdles. It…
‘Freedom’ by Erwin Olaf enters final days at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
On 2 April, I went to Amsterdam in the Netherlands with the EuroCity Direct to interview Ype Driessen of Fotostrips.nl on his first textual novel ‘Vanilla‘. I decided to combine it with a cultural activity.
BELGIUM | Rise of international trains puts pressure on the rail network: domestic services must not disappear
In three years, demand for train paths for international services in Belgium has almost doubled, De Standaard noticed. This is increasing pressure on the Belgian rail network, where more and more sections are being declared saturated, and it is also affecting the availability of domestic train services.
European Sleeper pushes Brussels–Cologne–Zurich–Milan night train to 9 September 2026
The Dutch–Belgian cooperative European Sleeper has postponed the launch of its new Brussels–Cologne–Zurich–Milan night train to 9 September 2026, instead of the previously announced 18 June 2026. Ticket sales will open on 17 March 2026. The company states that the delay is primarily due to extensive infrastructure works in Germany and Switzerland, combined with the…