The daily direct train to Switzerland will disappear from next summer
Brian Rodriguez,
The Amsterdam-Basel train will not run after July 15 this year. This means that the last-day train between the Netherlands and Switzerland will disappear after decades. Swiss Railways (SBB) confirmed this to Treinreizen.nl. NS does not yet want to confirm the disappearance of the train.
Long term work
It has been known in the railway sector for some time: the direct train between the Netherlands and Switzerland will disappear this year. Several sources informed Treinreizen.nl about this. In response to a question, Swiss Railways (SBB) spokeswoman Sabrina Schellenberg confirmed that the direct train will disappear from July 16 and will not return after that.
Long-term employment is the main reason for closing contact. The current direct train starts in Amsterdam at around eight in the morning and ensures that passengers can travel directly to Switzerland in comfort. The train is supposed to arrive at Basel SBB at around a quarter to three, and after half an hour the train will leave again for the Netherlands. But since work will begin on the track between Frankfurt and Mannheim from July 16, it will not be possible to operate the return journey with a single train and have a direct train fit properly into the timetable. Therefore, it was decided to remove the train from the timetable after July 15.
The train will not return in 2025 and 2026 either
Therefore the direct train will be canceled due to long-term work. Schellenberg: “In 2025, there will also be construction works between the German and Dutch borders (Oberhausen-Emerich, ed.) which will have consequences for the ICE Amsterdam-Basel train.” The SBB spokesman points to the eighty-week work that will begin in November this year to realize the third track between Emmerich and Oberhausen, an intervention necessary due to the heavy freight traffic on the line.
From 2026, the day train between the Netherlands and Switzerland will no longer be able to run. The German timetable will be fixed in 2026. According to a Swiss Railways spokesperson, direct ICE cannot simply return. “Permission for transfer at Cologne Airport or Frankfurt Airport is necessary.”
The prevailing story among train enthusiasts is that the day train to Switzerland will be canceled because the new ICE trains – ICE Neo – will not be allowed to run to Basel. SBB refutes this. Schellenberg: “DB's ICE Neo is allowed to travel to Basel, but not further than the Swiss rail network.”