Passenger train services • Main line services / Ticketing • Intercity • Private mainline operators • Netherlands • GoVolta
➤ Similar operators: Flixtrain – RegioJet – Snälltåget
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Key points
◼️ Second hand rolling stock ;
◼️ Only international routes.
Read the full package about GoVolta:
The company → 2.1 Rolling stock → Train services → Economics
In brief
In November 2023, Flywise Travel, through the entrepreneurs Hessel Winkelman and Maarten Bastian, submitted an application to the ACM to operate several international daytime trains. The company planned to offer daily services between Amsterdam and Berlin, as well as between Amsterdam and Paris, under the GoVolta brand, from May 2024. Due to a disagreement with the subcontractor, the company was forced to postpone the launch.
End 2025, GoVolta announced in 2026 that trains will operate from end March thanks to a new strategic partnership with Train Charter BV and Brouwer Technology BV, which are very experienced and reliable to offer to GoVolta the technical support.
Services began in March 2026 between Amsterdam, Berlin and Hamburg, with plans to join Paris in 2027.
| COMPANY TYPE | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name: | GoVolta | |
| Subsdiary/Branding from: | Flywise Travel | |
| Country of registration: | Netherlands | |
| Year founded (under this name): | November 2023 | |
| Sector: | Passengers long distance | |
| Investor(s) / Owner: | Various | |
| Headquartered at: | Breda | |
| Management of infrastructure: | no | |
| Management of stations: | no | |
| ACTIVITIES | ||
| Regional & local traffic: | no | |
| Long distance traffic: | yes | |
| Freight traffic: | no | |
| Traction: | by Train Charter BV | |
| Urban transport: | no | |
| Leasing: | via Train Charter BV | |
| Infrastructure works: | no | |
| Rolling stock maintenance: | Brouwer Technology BV |
Regular routes
➤ Amsterdam – Berlin
➤ Amsterdam – Hamburg
Rolling stock (past and present)
ex-SNCB/NMBS
2026 – …
Background
In November 2023, Flywise, a travel company, had submitted an application to the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) to operate new international train services from Amsterdam to Berlin, Basel, and Paris under the brand GoVolta.
The two the entrepreneurs, Hessel Winkelman and Maarten Bastian, already had experience in organising private trains through their charter train running under the name GreenCityTrip. But unlike those services, the proposed routes from new brand GoVolta would operate daytime trains. The company says the aim is to provide a more sustainable alternative to air travel. At that time, the company expected average ticket prices to be about €50–€60 to Berlin and around €80 to Paris, with trains offering two classes—Economy (second class) and Comfort (first class)—and including a bistro offering drinks and light snacks.
At that time also, the company planed to use locomotives such as the Alstom Traxx and Siemens Vectron with international intercity carriages, including ICR cars put up for sale by the Dutch Railways (NS). The first step was to raise the necessary funds. GoVolta had no intention of turning to crowdfunding, unlike its sister company European Sleeper.
The journey to secure investment was a tough one. The entrepreneurs met with a total of more than eighty potential investors. None of them dared to commit. “The stakeholders welcomed the idea. Encouraging more people to travel by train is a sustainable and commendable initiative. They had also raised few commercial or operational objections. The problem lay in the lack of a point of comparison. Investors didn’t know what to expect, as such an initiative was unprecedented. That’s why they adopted a wait-and-see approach,” explains Winkelman.
To operate trains, a company must hold a licence, a highly complex process in the Netherlands. “Currently, in the Netherlands, only one operator focuses on open-access providers. As a result, it is very difficult to launch a rail service in the country. We are also seeing that other open-access providers are facing the same difficulties,” Hessel Winkelman told Treinreizigers.nl.
In early 2024, GoVolta had announced a possible launch of the train in April 2025 at the earliest. But these plans quickly proved unfeasible.
Yet there appeared to be no obstacles: the transport operator had secured train paths for 2025, and when Rabobank came forward to finance the necessary rolling stock. Nearly €7 million was required to purchase and refurbish the rolling stock, but before the bank transferred the funds, it wanted to see valuation reports on the rolling stock the transport operator was considering. That’is here that problems began: the subcontractor that had been managing the former GreenCityTrip service was unable to provide sufficient documentation regarding the safety of the rolling stock. After eight months of intensive work, Rabobank withdrew…
What followed was somewhat confusing in the specialist media. There was talk of a wide variety of destinations, such as Basel, Copenhagen, Munich and even… Bruges in Belgium. No one knew exactly how GoVolta might acquire new rolling stock, or which new partners it might bring on board for technical support. GoVolta had to resolve to acquire its own rolling stock. Winkelman explained to Treinreizigers that “we are in discussions with various partners, and these discussions are progressing well.”
In December 2025, Keolis Nederland, a subsidiary of SNCF, announced its partnership with GoVolta. Keolis Nederland would be responsible for rail operations for GoVolta, including driver management, scheduling and day-to-day train operations. At that time, GoVolta announced that the first train to Berlin would depart on 19 March 2026, followed by the train to Hamburg the next day, 20 March, with three weekly services to both destinations.
Shortly before operations began, the technical partner changed to Train Charter BV.
Another partner is Brouwer Technology, a Netherlands-based firm specializing in railway infrastructure solutions. It provides engineering, installation, and maintenance services for rail systems, including signaling, power supply, and safety technologies. The company supports railway operators and contractors.
GoVolta had managed to secure the train paths – which had been lost for 2025 – for 2026. A detail adds pressure: due to the lack of a depot in Berlin, the train must make a round trip and back to Amsterdam the same evening. The 26-minute turnaround time at Berlin-Gesundbrunnen station seems to be a real challenge, given the uncertainties related to punctuality on the German rail network.
On 8 December 2025, it is announced that GoVolta acquired thirteen NMBS I10-type carriages in November. On 24 January 2026, the first GoVolta carriages arrive in Roosendaal from Schaarbeek in Belgium. On the same day, they are transferred by Railexperts to the Brouwer workshop in Blerick for refurbishment. Now the adventure can begin…
2026
19 March saw the launch of the very first train service between Amsterdam Central and Berlin. A change of technical operator a few days before the launch had necessitated a contingency solution for traction. This is why an NS 1700 series locomotive could still be seen departing from Amsterdam. As a result, the locomotive had to be changed at Bad-Bentheim for the remainder of the journey. The I10 carriage set made the return journey from Amsterdam to Berlin and back.
The following day, 20 March, the same trainset set off to Hamburg, a route that is a real novelty as it was not operated by the public operator NS. It can therefore be said that, on the route to Hamburg, GoVolta is not in competition with NS but in addition.
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Passenger train services • Main line services / Ticketing • Intercity • Private mainline operators • Netherlands • Lexical