Strengthen the international train so that it becomes an attractive alternative to short flights for more travelers. That is the ambition of the 'Action Agenda for Train and Aviation' that was recently sent to the Lower House. The agenda has been drawn up by Schiphol, ProRail, KLM and NS in collaboration with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.
In agenda are actions and measures to make the international train at distances of up to 700 kilometers a logical choice as an alternative to and in addition to air traffic. Routes to six travel destinations are named that can also be reached by train from Schiphol or Amsterdam. The bottlenecks and possible actions have been mapped for each of these routes. The routes that have been investigated have as final destination Brussels, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Berlin.
These six destinations are now also easily accessible by rail. Before the corona pandemic, for example, twelve trains a day ran between Amsterdam and Paris and the direct train connection to London also makes the train an attractive alternative to the plane. But to make the train even more attractive, more needs to be done. That is why it will be investigated whether trains to and from London and Düsseldorf / Frankfurt can be stopped at Schiphol and how baggage from the plane can be transferred onto the train. KLM reports this through this press release on their website.
Fewer flights to Brussels
At the beginning of this year, KLM replaced one of the five daily flights to Brussels with train journeys with Thalys. This means, for example, that a traveler from Brussels to Hong Kong travels by train to Schiphol and then on by plane. KLM offers a so-called AirRail ticket with growing success. AirRail tickets and connections can be further improved and extended to other destinations such as Düsseldorf. In order to further improve AirRail, we are committed to shortening travel times, increasing frequency and good solutions for luggage. With this action agenda, further steps are being taken to achieve this.
Structural cooperation
I&W, Schiphol, ProRail, KLM and NS want the international train to become an attractive alternative, so that travelers can take both the train and the plane or combine a train and air journey when transferring. They are currently focusing on the destinations Brussels, Paris, London, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Berlin.
Photo above: KLM image bank.
Also read: European flights with less KLM capacity
