Talks about a high-speed line between Amsterdam and the Belgian border started under Prime Minister Joop den Uyl (1973–1977); work began during Wim Kok's first term (1998–2002).

The Government of the Netherlands awarded the country's 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 L2 train control systems provided by Siemens AG and Alcatel (activities now part of Thales), and will be an ERTMS 2.3.0 Corridor.

South of Schiphol the dedicated high speed tracks begin, parallelling the existing railway line until Nieuw-Vennep.

North of Zoetermeer the train line leaves the tunnel west of Hazerswoude; it subsequently passes to the east of Benthuizen, and on an elevated track east of Zoetermeer, then back on the surface between Berkel en Rodenrijs and Bergschenhoek, and after a tunnel, joins the existing line again north of Rotterdam.

On the domestic Intercity Direct services (running from Amsterdam to Schiphol, Rotterdam and Breda) all regular Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) tickets are valid.

Railway Gazette reported in April 2011 that certification had been achieved and indeed Level 2 operations began on the southern section in May 2011 with Fyra services running at up to 160 km/h and Thalys at up to 300 km/h.

The amount of Traxx locomotives and Prio carriages will be increased over the coming years as a stopgap measure until new intercity trains (foreseen in 2021/2022) will enter service.

[12] On 3 June 2013, the Dutch national railway company NS announced that it had made a similar evaluation, and expressed its desire to stop with the V250 project.

[18] In May 2014, NMBS/SNCB, AnsaldoBreda and its controlling company Finmeccanica announced that they reached a settlement that confirms the cancellation of the train orders and includes the payment of 2.5 million euros to NMBS/SNCB.

[19] Cracks were discovered in the welds on the Zuidweg viaduct near Rijpwetering in October 2022, believed to be caused by design error with the deformation of the rubber support blocks.

9 other viaducts were investigated, all also between the northern portal of the 8.67 km Groenehart tunnel and the junction where it joins the conventional network at Hoofddorp, due to being constructed in a similar manner, and a 160 km/h restriction was placed across these.

[21] In January 2024, 9 structures including bridges and viaducts were deemed not strong enough to withstand trains passing at high speed, meaning the restriction was further lowered from 160 km/h to 120 km/h.

[25] In February 2025, the CEO of ProRail, John Voppen, reported that repairs will take a number of years to complete, with issues unique to each viaduct.

[22] In October 2010, Deutsche Bahn (DB) announced plans to directly connect Amsterdam and Rotterdam with London, using the Channel Tunnel.

This proposal would see services from London formed out of a pair of DB's Class 407 international ICE units, which would then divide in Brussels, with one train to Frankfurt and the other to Amsterdam.

At approximately the same time, Eurostar also announced proposals to run services direct to Amsterdam, which would use its planned new e320 trains, and would be capable of operating on the infrastructure of the Dutch classic network as well as the HSL-Zuid.