It is extremely likely that some form of passport check will be reintroduced on Thalys and Eurostar international train services, a spokesman for the Dutch justice ministry has told broadcaster NOS.

The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Britain have reached a deal on bringing back passport controls, the spokesman said. The four countries will meet with the train companies in the coming months to determine how the checks are to be carried out.

They aim to finalise a plan by mid March, NOS said.

The checks will involve comparing the name on identity cards to the name on the ticket rather than actual border controls. It is not yet clear who will carry out the checks and the train companies are not keen because it will add to journey times, the Volkskrant said.

There have been calls for the introduction of identity checks on public transport in the wake of the Berlin Christmas market attack. The perpetrator was able to escape to Italy by using public transport in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

There are as yet no plans to bring in identity checks on international buses or on ordinary international trains.

Window dressing

However, terrorism expert Bibi van Ginkel of the Clingendael Institute told NOS on Friday afternoon the introduction of passport checks is ‘window dressing’. ‘Terrorists will always find a way. They’ll take a different route or get a false passport,’ Van Ginkel said.

In addition, the people charged with checking the passports may not be able to recognise a forgery, she said.

Governments would be better served by working together and improving cooperation between their security services, she said. ‘That is the real problem… if the security services had passed on the name of who they thought was responsible [for Berlin] they could have run a more focused search.’