A train ticket to Berlin for 10 euros. Or an overnight trip to Milan while you sleep. The ambitions of the Dutch start-ups GoVolta and European Sleeper mark a new phase in international train traffic from the Netherlands. Finally, the liberalization of the railways is getting off the ground.
GoVolta, which likes to see itself as the ‘EasyJet of the railways’, presented plans for affordable, direct intercity trains to Germany in Breda on Monday. It will start on March 19, 2026 with the Amsterdam-Berlin journey (three times a week), followed a day later by Amsterdam-Hamburg (also three times a week). In the summer, GoVolta wants to drive to both cities every day, and Amsterdam-Paris is planned from December 2026. Partners are public transport company Keolis, which operates the trains, and Brouwer Technology for maintenance.
The new one low costrail company, founded by travel entrepreneurs Hessel Winkelman and Maarten Bastian, promises one-way tickets to Berlin from 10 euros, with an average price around 30 euros. Including dining car, two pieces of hand luggage, and two comfort classes.
“We want to offer an affordable and sustainable alternative to short and medium-long flights and car journeys,” Bastian said in Breda on Monday. The initiators have been active in the travel industry for some time with air travel provider Flywise.
GoVolta’s rates are much lower than what NS charges for a one-way ticket to Berlin. Anyone who wants to go to Berlin this week pays 140 euros; a single ticket next summer will cost 60 to 70 euros. The NS Intercity to Berlin runs much more often, five times a day, and faster. NS does it in almost 6 hours, GoVolta in about 7. NS does not run directly to Hamburg.
How can GoVolta be so cheap? “We think we can work more efficiently than current providers,” says Winkelman. “We only drive when there is demand, on routes that have proven to be popular. Not early in the morning to an unknown city in Germany, but at commercially acceptable times to the major cities. Our staff also does not have to change at the border, as NS and Deutsche Bahn do.”
Night train to Milan
At the same time, European Sleeper is expanding its network. The Dutch-Belgian carrier has been operating the Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin-Prague sleeper train since 2023. Nearly 240,000 passengers have already taken more than 750 train rides.
Paris-Berlin will follow at the end of March 2026. European Sleeper takes over this service from the Austrian ÖBB and the French SNCF. They no longer see any value in this process. And completely new is the night train to Milan. “The new route to Switzerland and Italy creates an important north-south connection in Europe,” says Chris Engelsman of European Sleeper. “We connect important economic and cultural regions.”
The new night train will depart three times a week, part from Amsterdam, another part from Brussels. European Sleeper connects the trains in Germany. Engelsman says he has postponed the planned route to Barcelona until 2027 or 2028, in favor of Milan.
Free rail market
The rise of GoVolta and European Sleeper fits within the broader context of the European liberalization of rail, initiated by the European Commission twelve years ago. The goal at the time: a free rail market with more competition, so that travelers can travel more, better and, above all, cheaper by train.
After a reluctant start, the Dutch government also opened the rail market. Domestic, with regional contracts (concessions) for local trains outside the Randstad, and internationally.
On January 1, 2025, something fundamental changed: NS no longer has the exclusive right to trains to Brussels and Berlin. These routes are no longer included in the main rail network concession (HRN), the multi-year agreement between NS and the government for the most important intercity trains and local trains.
Under pressure from Brussels and carriers competing with NS, the government has (largely) removed international train services from the HRN concession. When companies such as GoVolta and European Sleeper operate an international line at their own expense and risk – without subsidy – this is called open access or ‘open access‘. You request a route, rail manager ProRail checks whether there is room on the network and competition monitor ACM checks whether concessionaire NS is not experiencing economic damage. Eurostar has been running the high-speed trains to Paris and London in open access for some time.
In 2023, the then government asked who would eventually want to run international trains in open access. Seven providers registered with great plans for train fans: GoVolta/Flywise, European Sleeper, Arriva, Flixtrain, Qbuzz, Heurotrain and NS. From Amsterdam you could travel (more often) to London, Basel, Hamburg, Marseille, Copenhagen, Munich.
Risky
However, it appears to be a “slog” to start an international train service, said Maarten Bastian of GoVolta in Breda. “It is terribly complicated to get an initiative off the ground.”
Financiers consider the rail market to be risky. Rail managers such as ProRail and foreign colleagues have little experience with open access providers, European Sleeper has already noticed. Opportunities to offer transport on attractive routes and times are scarce. At stations in Berlin and Basel there is no room to leave your train overnight. Rabobank dropped out as a financier for GoVolta; now the founders Keolis and Brouwer Technology pay the lease of locomotives and carriages and other costs.
The start-ups also complain about “unfair competition” from the established carriers. Winkelman: “NS and Eurostar may offer passengers a free train trip from any Dutch station to Amsterdam, the international starting station. Eurostar only pays 9 euros per passenger to NS for this. We are not allowed to do this.” As a result, travelers who, for example, travel from Den Helder to Amsterdam for the GoVolta train to Berlin pay the full fare for the domestic journey.
The providers also believe that sales of GoVolta and European Sleeper trips on the NS International website should be improved. This site is most commonly used in the Netherlands to buy international train tickets. GoVolta is now considering alternative sales channels, where – in line with the strategy of their flying company Flywise – sales through retail chains such as Kruidvat, AH and Hema are the obvious options.
The promise of cheap international train tickets is concrete thanks to GoVolta, and the night train is celebrating a comeback with destinations like Milan. But the financial uncertainties, bureaucratic obstacles and the battle for track space and facilities show that the road to real competition on European rail is still long and bumpy.
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