Transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen is preparing to put four regional train routes out to public tender, much to the fury of national rail operator NS, according to media reports on Friday.

Ministerial advisors have recommended farming out two local train routes in Limburg and the Zwolle-Groningen and Zwolle-Enschede stop train services. Intercity services would remain in the hands of the NS.
The NS is highly critical of the plans, which it says will cost the taxpayer more and will fragment services. Local officials are also concerned that the network of interconnecting services will be broken up, Nos television reported.
The minister renewed NS’s licence to operate most rail services last year, on the condition that more regional services are put out to public tender. The Eindhoven-Weert and Apeldoorn-Enschede services may also be farmed out to private firms at a later date, the minister said in a briefing to MPs.
State-owned
The Dutch railway system is separated into a passenger arm – the NS – and rail operator ProRail which runs the tracks. Both companies are 100% state-owned. Some 30 rail routes in the Netherlands are operated by third parties such as Connexxion and Veolia.
In May it emerged that bus and train company Syntus, which operates services around Arnhem, posted a loss of €5m in 2011 and is in financial trouble.
Syntus is a 50:50 joint venture between Dutch state-owned railway group NS and Keolis, which in turn is 45% owned by French state railway group SNCF.
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