Parliament is concerned about the cost of saving the financially troubled high-speed line between Amsterdam and the Belgian border and has asked transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen for clarification.

According to figures given to parliament by the minister in the spring budget, the shortfall is €400m. However, the parliamentary research office says this should be €1.7bn, reports Trouw.
CDA MP Sander de Rouwe told parliament on Tuesday evening the file on the high-speed line is hopelessly outdated and this is giving MPs a feeling of ‘where there’s smoke, there’s fire’.
Parliament asked Schultz van Haegen to clarify just how much is needed to save the project from bankruptcy, says Trouw. She replied that the figures she gave them are correct. The confusion comes because several sets of figures were listed in the same table in the spring budget.
Last year, the minister said the high-speed route to the Belgian border was proving expensive to operate and had failed to attract enough passengers. And NS Hispeed director Maarten Spaargaarden admitted it might take 15 years before the route made a profit.
The high-speed line is operated by High Speed Alliance which is 90% owned by the Dutch national railways NS and 10% by Air France-KLM.