The government is poised to tell the state-owned Dutch railway company NS it must give up its European ambitions and make sure it carries out its primary function – providing train services – properly, according to a confidential report.

Nor will the NS and its subsidiaries be allowed to tender for regional train and bus contracts, which will remain exclusive to third parties such as Arriva, Veolia and Connexxion, the Telegraaf quotes the report as saying.

The Telegraaf says the recommendations are contained in a long-term position paper on the future of the Dutch railways currently being finalised by the cabinet.

The paper also states that service company NS and track operator ProRail will remain separate companies, despite calls from parliament for them to be remerged.

The Telegraaf points out that last year NS spent millions of euros buying bus company Qbuzz and part of The Hague’s public transport company HTM. The plan had been to build a regional transport company around them, but this is now likely to be halted, the Telegraaf says.

Connexxion and Veolia are in the hands of French consortium Veoliatransdev which is 50% owned by France’s state-owned Caisse des Dépôts. Arriva is owned by German state railway firm Deutsche Bahn.