Wikipedia
HSL-Zuid (, ), is a 125 km-long high-speed railway line in the Netherlands to the Belgian border, with a branch to Breda. Together with the Belgian HSL 4 it forms the Schiphol–Antwerp high-speed railway. Originally scheduled to be in service by 2007, the first public operations began on 7 September 2009, after a ceremony on 6 September.
Intercity Direct operates between Amsterdam and Breda, for the time being with conventional InterCity carriages and TRAXX locomotives.
On 13 December 2009 Thalys began services from Amsterdam to Paris and Brussels on the HSL-Zuid.
Rijkswaterstaat, an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, was responsible for the organization of the project. The government awarded the largest ever public-private partnership (PPP) contract to the consortium Infraspeed until 2030; it is responsible for design, construction, financing and maintenance. The line features state-of-the-art technology, including ETCS level 2 train control systems provided by Siemens AG and Alcatel (activities now part of Thales), and will be an ERTMS 2.3.0 Corridor.