The Dutch government has urged NS, which holds the concession to operate most regional services and all inter-city trains in the Netherlands, to procure new inter-city rolling stock within four years.
However, NS says it wants to apply the lessons it has learnt as a result of the disastrous procurement of V250 high-speed trains from AnsaldoBreda and wishes to choose from various suppliers, which takes time.
NS has also stressed that new inter-city rolling stock will have a maximum speed of 200km/h, and it has no intention of ordering faster trains, arguing that higher speeds are not required because of the relatively short distances between stations.
