High Speed Alliance (HSA)
For the transport on the High Speed Line, the consortium High Speed Alliance (HSA) was established. This consortium consists of Dutch Railways (NS) and Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM). They have a 15-year concession, which means the right to operate transport on the entire high speed line from Amsterdam to Paris, and the exclusive right to operate the high speed transport inside the Netherlands.
The HSA consortium has a start-up period of two years to develop a full service schedule for domestic trains. During this start-up period the services Amsterdam - Rotterdam and Amsterdam - Breda will run at least once every hour in each direction, and HSA will do its best to realise services every half hour during rush hours on both routes.
European regulations do not exclude that additional international trains will also be brought into service.
Start operation of commercial transport Amsterdam-Paris
The concession agreement with HSA was started on the day the contract was formally awarded: 5 December 2001. The agreement pertains to the period prior to the time that high speed lines will actually run (the implementation period) and to the period that full train services are actually offered (the concession period, 15 years, of which 2 years a start-up period). The concession period starts in 2008.
- Websites
- NS Hispeed