A Dutch Start-Up Wants to Take On Eurostar by 2030

A Dutch rail start-up called HeuroTrain says it plans to run its own high-speed trains between Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, with a launch targeted for December 2030. The Local France reported on November 3 that the company signed a 10-year framework agreement in October with SNCF Réseau, France’s rail network manager, covering track access from Paris to Wannehain near the Belgian border from December 2030 to December 2040.

The target is 16 daily return services among the three cities, about one train an hour. By comparison, Eurostar runs roughly 10 daily return services between Paris and Amsterdam. HeuroTrain expects a fastest Paris-Amsterdam journey of about 3.5 hours and says it has no plans for London-Paris. It estimates the corridor market at 14 million trips a year, and Eurostar’s traffic on the route grew 6.7 percent in 2025. No fares have been announced.

The hard parts are still ahead. Dutch media report 125 million euros of seed funding, while the launch budget is estimated at 400 to 500 million euros and the trains alone at least 500 million. A fundraising campaign is planned for 2027, and the company has yet to choose a train manufacturer.

HeuroTrain is not alone. A rival, GoVolta, plans three daily Amsterdam-Paris round trips via Brussels from December 2028 using former Deutsche Bahn ICE trains. For travelers, more operators on the line could eventually mean lower fares and more departures, but with launch dates years away, nothing changes for current bookings.

Sources: The Local France, Voyages d’Affaires