In 2003, the HSA (High Speed Alliance)(Consisting of an cooperation between the Belgian and Dutch railway companies) won the concession for the new Dutch high speed railway system. It would start operations in 2009, taking over the international route between Brussels and Amsterdam (With stops in Rotterdam, Breda and Antwerp).
As it was a brand new railway, no train in the Belgian or Dutch inventory was fully suited for the task. Requests for a new train went out..... and no replies came from the industry for a new train of which only 19 would be build.
The HSA then cooperated with the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch railways) to come to an new requirement that would be satisfactory both for the HSA's needs and that of the general railway network of the Netherlands, to replace the famous 'Koplopers' in service as the single deck intercity train in the near future.
3 proposals were made on this, and in the end one of them was chosen: the entry by Bombardier. Bombardier had used it's long experience with the Netherlands trains to create a new version of the Koploper, one with an more modern and simpler design for the passage from one multiple unit train to the other.
This created a very flexible set of trains, so flexible even that of the first series of trains had the '6' painted in the Fyra colours, while the '4' which was not always connected to the international trains (depending on expected amounts of passengers) had a more general NS paint scheme so it could be used more easily outside it's normal route.
25 '4's and 20 '6's were ordered, of which the first were delivered in 2014. From 2018 onwards the interim (leased) TRAXX locomotives were retired from service on the high speed rail network and all operations were done by the HSDM.
From 2021 onwards, more trains of the same type were ordered by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen, most of which did not have the ability to run on the 25 kV of the high speed network, which also reduced the top speed.
Bombardier HSDM
- Top speed: 230 km/h (25 kV), 170 km/h (1500 V)
- Operational voltages: 1500 V DC, 3000 V DC, 25 kV AC
- Train length: 92,11 meter ('4'), 133,89 meter ('6') and 226,00 meter (normal length for operations as Fyra)
- Operators: HSA/ Fyra, Nederlanse Spoorwegen
- Seated capacity: 245 passengers 2nd class, 27 passengers 1st class ('4'). 324 passengers 2nd class, 81 passengers 1st class ('6'). 569 passengers 2nd class, 108 passengers 1st class (total)
I dedicate this challenge entry to a dear friend of mine who sadly passed away last year. Over the past years we spend many hours over some good beers discussing Dutch trains, so when this challenge came up I had no choice but to use that as inspiration