After more than 3 years of intensive testing it lasted just 40 days: the use of these highspeedtrains build by AnsaldoBreda (owned by Finmeccanica and located in Pistoia, Italy) between Amsterdam and Brussels. The service began on December 9, 2012 and was from the beginning plagued by long delays and cancellations of trains by various disturbances. Door jams, problems with the ETCS, staff still getting used to the trains, and so on, and so on. Finally, on January 17, a unit lost a baseplate in Belgium which led immediately to a ban on driving in Belgium. Two big reports were made, and NMBS and NS decided to cancel the complete order of 19 trainsets (NMBS 3, HSA 16). In the reports things as rusting axles, a door that spontaneously came loose, batteries that caught fire, no trainset is similar to another train, etc. were mentioned. It is yet unclear what will happen to the trainsets, but the chances are that they all will be demolished. For the majority of the sets that would mean that they are demolished without ever having carried a single passenger. By now (August 2013), 3 sets are still in Italy and the other 16 sets are awaiting their unsure future at Amsterdam Watergraafsmeer yard. During that 40 days I managed to get 2 sunny pictures of these trains in normal service, and this is one of them. Set 4808 arrives from Brussels at Amsterdam Centraal.
The worst of railroad design. Please, send me your entries / suggestions for the "Album of the ugly trains of the world" (past or present, paint scheme or shape).
