🇳🇱 Country
Train routes in Netherlands
17 routes · high-speed 4 · classic 8 · night train 2 · heritage 3
17 routes cross Netherlands in the World Train Map atlas. The longest is the European Sleeper at 1,200 km; the fastest is the Eurostar (Thalys), running up to 300 km/h; the oldest line dates to 1861. Every route links to its facts, photo and story, and to the interactive world map.
Open the world railway map →Part of the Europe train map: every route on the continent, one map.
High-speed (4)
- Eurostar (Thalys)
The crimson Thalys, folded into Eurostar in 2023, chains French, Belgian and Dutch high-speed lines into one dash.
Wikipedia ↗ - ICE International
Upgraded to new ICE 3neo trains in late 2025, replacing loco-hauled Intercitys on the roughly six-hour cross-border run to the Dutch capital.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - ICE International
ICE 3M multi-system sets leave Amsterdam and, past Cologne, dive onto the 300 km/h Cologne–Rhine/Main line with its motorway-style gradients.
Wikipedia (DE) ↗ - Eurostar
A single train from St Pancras to Amsterdam Centraal since 2018: under the Channel, across Flanders and over the Dutch polders in about four hours.
Wikipedia ↗
Classic (8)
- Intercity Zwolle–Roosendaal
The long Dutch diagonal, Overijssel to the Belgian border in two and three quarter hours down the IJssel through Deventer and Zutphen and across Brabant, on the state railway the act of 1860 ordered built.
- Maaslijn
The Meuse line, Nijmegen to Roermond down the east bank in an hour and eighteen minutes, the one long Dutch railway that runs north to south rather than in and out of the Randstad.
- Intercity
The northbound Intercity crosses the young Flevoland polders on the Hanzelijn — the Almere–Lelystad stretch past the Oostvaardersplassen wetlands was voted the Netherlands’ most beautiful train journey by NS passengers in 2016 — then skirts the low Hondsrug ridge to Groningen in a little over two hours.
- Intercity
Double-deck VIRM Intercitys run almost the whole length of the country to Maastricht, the old Dutch city on the Meuse near the Belgian border.
- Intercity Direct
New ICNG trains take the HSL-Zuid high-speed line, hitting 200 km/h as they link Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Breda without a change.
Wikipedia ↗ - Liège–Maastricht railway
Down the Meuse from Liège to Maastricht, a cross-border run open since 1861 and now worked by Arriva's Dutch regional trains.
Wikipedia ↗ - Intercity Vlissingen
The long way to the sea: Haarlem, Leiden, The Hague and Rotterdam, then over the Hollands Diep into Zeeland and along the Scheldt through Goes and Middelburg to Vlissingen, on rails finished in 1873.
- Intercity Den Helder–Nijmegen
Coast to the German border in one train: from Den Helder at the tip of North Holland through Alkmaar and Amsterdam, then Utrecht, the edge of the Veluwe and Arnhem to Nijmegen on the Waal.
Night train (2)
- European Sleeper
Crowdfunded start-up that gave the Low Countries their night train back: via The Hague and Amsterdam to Berlin and the Elbe valley to Prague.
Wikipedia ↗ - Nightjet Zurich–Amsterdam
Asleep along the Rhine, awake on the IJ: the 2021 revival that re-linked the Alps to the canals, sliding past Cologne’s floodlit cathedral at midnight.
Wikipedia ↗
Heritage (3)
- Miljoenenlijn
Nicknamed the Million Line for its ruinously costly cuttings and viaducts, this steam railway climbs the only real hills in the Netherlands, in South Limburg.
Wikipedia ↗ - Museumstoomtram Hoorn–Medemblik
A steam tram dating from 1887 still crosses North Holland’s polders and tulip fields between Hoorn and the old Zuiderzee port of Medemblik.
Wikipedia ↗ - Veluwsche Stoomtrein
The Netherlands’ biggest steam operation: wartime German Kriegsloks and a forty-strong fleet work the 1887 Veluwe country line between Apeldoorn and Dieren.
Wikipedia ↗
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence
What is the fastest train in Netherlands?
The Eurostar (Thalys), running Paris to Amsterdam at up to 300 km/h. It is one of 17 routes in Netherlands in this atlas.
Are there night trains in Netherlands?
Yes — 2 sleeper services in this atlas serve Netherlands: European Sleeper (Brussels – Prague), Nightjet Zurich–Amsterdam (Zurich – Amsterdam).
Can you cross the border by train from Netherlands?
Yes — 7 of its 17 routes continue into another country: Eurostar (Thalys) (Paris – Amsterdam), European Sleeper (Brussels – Prague), Nightjet Zurich–Amsterdam (Zurich – Amsterdam), ICE International (Berlin – Amsterdam), among others.
Which is the most scenic railway in Netherlands?
No line in Netherlands is classed scenic or mountain in this atlas — its 17 routes are everyday services rather than journeys taken for the view.
Cross-border lines continue into
- 🇧🇪 Train routes in Belgium 26 routes
- 🇨🇿 Train routes in Czechia 30 routes
- 🇫🇷 Train routes in France 109 routes
- 🇩🇪 Train routes in Germany 136 routes
- 🇨🇭 Train routes in Switzerland 71 routes
- 🇬🇧 Train routes in United Kingdom 81 routes