After Deutsche Bahn (DB) announced earlier this year that its new ICE-4 generation trains will allow 8 complete bicycles on board, there is more good news from the bike-and-train world, and this time it is coming from the Netherlands. Dutch Railways (NS) announced two days ago that its IC trains operating on high-speed rail lines will allow the carriage of 4 bicycles. This service will be gradually implemented from 2017 onwards. Wim Bot from Fietsersbond, the Dutch Cyclists’ Union said: “We welcome this decision, up till now it has not been possible due to security reasons. We are very glad with our lobby success and that a solution has been found. It also means that bicycle transport will remain possible in the service to Antwerpen and Bruxelles when this transfers to high-speed rail.”

Actually, carrying bicycles on board of Dutch ordinary national trains outside rush hour has already been possible for many years. The NS sells annually around 750 000 Bicycle Day Tickets which can be purchased in the vending machines or online (ns.nl), but this type of ticket will become newly available also for all Intercity trains running on HSL by mid-2017, including the new IC service Den Haag-Eindhoven and IC to Brussels. “We are very glad that NS is allowing bicycles on their high-speed trains and we hope the other operators will follow soon,” declared Roel de Cleen from Fietsersbond, the Flemish sister organisation.

The Dutch national passenger railway operator assumes that the equipment of coaches with bike facilities in the Intercity trains will be gradual. NS will provide more coaches which are suitable for the HSL and equip them with necessary bike facilities, so that at least four bicycles could be loaded on board. A clear outdoor bicycle sticker on the right coach will show where one can travel with his or her bicycle. For the moment, however, it will not possible to take your bike on board into trains without these stickers.

Nevertheless, this new bicycle policy does not concern Thalys, which runs high speed train services between Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris using Dutch and Belgian HSL. As an independent operator it has different conditions concerning bicycles on board: Thalys allows only the carriage of bicycles which are contained in a bag measuring 120 x 90 cm and the front wheel must be removed. Folding bicycles are accepted.

http://nieuws.ns.nl/straks-fietsen-meenem-op-de-hogesnelheidslijn/