It must launch an Amsterdam-Paris night train in December: the company GoVolta stops its connections following an incident

Doing rail in low cost and startup mode is a risky adventure and GoVolta knows something about it. The Dutch company launched last March with a night train between Amsterdam and Berlin and also has the ambition to connect Paris to the Batavian capital at the end of this year. Like its compatriot EuropeanSleeper, the idea is to offer low prices (the ticket costs on average 30 euros and starts at 10 euros without options) by operating old conventional trains from the 1980s with high capacity, without air conditioning or wifi purchased from SNCB (the Belgian trains).

To save money, costs are reduced as much as possible: the cars are rented to a specialist just like the locomotive, it is assembly. The staff on board is reduced to a minimum and the company formulates, markets its offers and takes care of their operation. Problem, at the slightest grain of sand in the machine, everything collapses.

This Wednesday GoVolta announced the suspension of its connection between Amsterdam and Berlin until further notice. It follows the immobilization of a train last Thursday, damaged by smoke, about an hour from Berlin. After a technical inspection, the train in question was immobilized for safety reasons.

Problem, if the company has thirteen cars, seven are currently in service, the others are under maintenance. The startup thus finds itself without equipment and must cease its activity, to the great dismay of customers who had made reservations. Moreover, the company is starting to be the victim of significant bad buzz on the Web and obtains a low rating of 2.6/5 on TrustPilot.

This incident is the latest in a long list which has seriously disrupted the service, with GoVolta not always being responsible, its trains being able to be stopped for third-party reasons. Even so, this decision illustrates the fragility of the assembler model in the railway sector. Moreover, in the Netherlands, the consumer association sharply criticizes the communication and handling of complaints by GoVolta.

According to her, the carrier did not sufficiently inform passengers of alternative solutions and their right to a refund during previous disruptions. On X, many customers complain about having to fend for themselves during incidents and criticize the silence of customer service following their requests. “Staff completely untrained to know how to act and inform people about what happens next.

They leave you to your fate and manage,” said one of them on X. Questioned by BFM Business, GoVolta has not yet returned our requests for comment.

Machine-translated from French