The discontinued service of the AmsEindShuttle raises important questions about the resilience and sustainability of startups in the mobility sector.
The new shuttle connection AmsEindShuttle, which should have offered a direct bus service between Eindhoven Airport and Amsterdam, has ended in a lull. The initiative of the young entrepreneur Gijs van den Broek has recently been discontinued, and there is no clarity about the future of the service.
use the pendulum
This shuttle would cover the route twice a day from June, mainly to deal with the traffic congestion from air passengers. Expectations were high, partly because the climate-neutral buses from the renowned Jan de Wit Group would be used. The transport company today confirmed by telephone the temporary suspension of the young entrepreneur's services and was unable to provide information about a resumption of services.
While the final fate of the AmsEindShuttle has yet to be written, it is certain that the mobility market will continue to evolve, and perhaps even a lesson for future entrepreneurs in the importance of starting with a well-informed plan and a strong backup strategy.
However, the dream of Gijs van den Broek (2004) appears to have been put on hold amid disappointment from customers facing canceled trips and lack of refunds. Customers complain of a lack of communication, with their calls going unanswered and emails yielding no response other than defensive reactions to negative reviews.
A look at the location on the Marinus van Meelweg in Eindhoven confirmed that the luxury buses are no longer waiting for passengers. The ambition for the shuttle arose, in his own words, when the demand for it was identified from airlines such as Ryanair and Wizzair, which Van den Broek even mentions as partners on his website when writing our article. booking site. After the publication of our article, it now appears that the website has also been taken offline and, despite these partnerships, reality seems to be taking a different turn.
contact
The sole proprietorship van den Broek trading office was founded in February 2023 and is registered At the Chamber of Commerce. Attempts to gain more insight via the AmsEindShuttle call center resulted in evasive answers from an answering machine from the Schoonhoven company. Our research into the current state of affairs yielded little concrete information until we were approached by the entrepreneur who indicated that he was not pleased with our article and threatened legal action.
In the meantime, the editors have had telephone contact with van den Broek, who indicated that he would like to respond to our article by email and would still like to provide an explanation for the complaints received and where things went wrong with the sale of the tickets. Where the future of the service lies is as unclear as the empty chairs in the coaches. With services suspended and customers in limbo, the question remains how a promising initiative can be halted so quickly and what the next step will be for the young entrepreneur and his customers. In any case, we are awaiting a response to hear his side of the story.