A new high-speed rail line linking Brussels to Amsterdam opened today, a showcase project in European plans to promote fast trains as an environmentally friendy alternative to air travel.

With trains on the line reaching speeds of up to 300 kph, travellers can now save 49 minutes and be in Brussels just 1 hour and 53 minutes after departing Amsterdam.

The travel time by rail between Cologne and Brussels will be cut by half an hour to 1 hour and 47 minutes.

Thalys, the train operator owned by France's railway SNCF, its Belgian counterpart SNCB and Deutsche Bahn, says it expects a 65 percent rise in traffic between Pais and Amsterdam by 2013.

Much of this will be due to passengers abandoning cars and airplanes in favour of the fast, environmentally friendly trains, Thalys says. It hopes the allure of high-speed rail will result in an extra 500,000 passengers in 2010.

Onboard the inaugural morning run, musicians with guitars and accordions sang French tunes to passengers as the driver proclaimed on speakers the train had hit a speed of 300 kph.

With rail travel accounting for less than 1 percent of the European transport sector's greenhouse gas emissions, governments are keen to promote high-speed rail as a clean alternative to air travel.

The new line will cut the travel time by rail between Amsterdam and Paris to 3 hours and 18 minutes, two hours more than a journey by air, albeit at a cheaper price and without the delays and congestion of airport security.

Several countries such as France and Portugal have launched procurement programmes in high-speed rail as they seek to stimulate their construction sector and upgrade their transport infrastructure.