Move over, Eurostar, there’s a new (Dutch) train company on the block! Promising loads of daily trains from Groningen to Paris and London, newcomer Heuro also boasts cheaper ticket prices.
Whilst all of this may sound too good to be true, father-son duo Roemer and Maarten van den Biggelaar are committed to giving us better access to cheaper international trains.
International train routes: not just for the Randstad
According to AD.nl, the van den Biggelaars want 16 daily return trips to Paris and 15 daily return trips to London by 2028. It’s definitely an ambitious plan — even Eurostar only runs four times daily — but they insist they can make it work.
They’ve done the research and crunched the numbers, and Heuro claims that their tickets will be much cheaper than the average. (God, if you’re listening, please make it true! 🙏)
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And here’s the kicker: two of these trains per route will run from Groningen. Heuro believes that the Randstad gets too much time in the spotlight, and there’s high demand outside the area for trains as well.
The practical stuff
Obviously, this is expensive. (We’re talking hundreds of millions of euros expensive. 👀) The company will need to purchase trains, set everything up, spruce up the trains, and so on.
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As you can imagine, there are quite a lot of things to settle before Heuro can hit the road. Or, rather, the tracks.
However, Heuro states that they’re currently in talks with train manufacturers to ensure that everything’s going as smoothly (and quickly!) as possible. Their request is for each train to accommodate 450 to 550 passengers and travel at 300km/h at least.
So the takeaway is… we’ll soon have more international trains for CHEAPER prices? Sign us right up!
How do you feel about an international train route from outside the Randstad? Share your thoughts in the comments below!