It has been announced that both ProRail and NS train stations will be getting rid of smoking areas on train platforms.Â
As of October 1, smoking will be banned on train platforms throughout the Netherlands. This means that train stations will be completely smoke-free as the platform was the last area within stations that passengers were allowed to smoke.
Throughout the month of September, smoking polls and grids will be removed from the 100 train stations in which they had remained.
From April, cigarettes could no longer be bought from kiosks at the stations.
A healthier Netherlands
This follows an announcement by the NS and ProRail back in January, in which they claimed that they wanted to abide by the National Prevention Agreement of 2018. The Agreement looked at initiatives to make the Netherlands healthier. One of these initiatives was to see train journeys become completely smoke-free. This is meant to help the Netherlands become a smoke-free society by the year 2040.
Director of the NS, Anneke de Vries told NOS that “we would like to offer our travellers a smoke-free journey. The public opinion about this is really changing. The time is now.”
De Vries believes measures will help those who want to quit. “By no longer selling cigarettes, NS can make things a lot easier for them.”
The director of ProRail, Ans Reitstra, was in agreement with De Vries, claiming that smoking is more of a nuisance for travellers than a luxury. “When you smoke, you are always a burden to others. People are walking around it, people are waiting on busy platforms. People suffer from that.”
Reitstra believes that if people can do a smoke-free train, they can survive a smoke-free station. “I think everyone is ultimately happy with smoke-free platforms.”
How do you feel about smoke-free train stations? Let us know in the comments below.
Feature Image: Donny Jiang/ UnsplashÂ
This is great. Finally in the age of Covid NS is realizing that allowing smoking on the platforms harmed everyone’s health.
This is great news. Now, do something about discarding cigarette butts on the streets. They end up in the oceans. Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash and are harmful to marine life. Cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic, and can take up to 10 years to biodegrade.