ICE high speed train service under threat
11 December 2009
Just days before the first real high-speed trains begin travelling between Amsterdam and Paris, the future of the ICE high-speed service to Germany is in doubt,
the Telegraaf reports on Friday, quoting a confidential letter to personnel.
In the letter, Jan Willem Siebers of Dutch Rail's high speed service Hispeed says that 'from a corporate economic perspective, it is undesirable to maintain such a loss-making product'.
'NS Hispeed management have suggested this summer that the ICE service must show a profit within the near future in order to continue the contract past 2013,' the letter said.
ICE trains travel at 300 kph in Germany but in the Netherlands have to move at normal speeds. The service was launched 10 years ago and makes a structural loss running into millions of euros.
A spokesman for the personnel said workers felt 'completely abandoned'. 'All the time, money and attention goes to the empty Fyra trains between Amsterdam and Rotterdam,' the Telegraaf quoted him as saying.
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