By 2040 there should be a train to 9 major cities every 10 minutes

The State Secretary Van Veldhoven has said in the NOS Radio 1 Journaal that we should expect a train every 10 minutes between 9 major Dutch cities by 2040. She also stated that they should become easier to change modes of transport and get around. These proposals will be sent to the House of Representatives today.

With the growth in population and more and more tourists flocking to the major cities, it’s important that this issue is addressed sooner rather than later, as it’s inevitable that the public transport system will have to evolve to meet demand. The demand is expected to increase by 30-40% within this time period.

The proposal:

• Metro-like connection between Arnhem, Breda, Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Zwolle and other large cities in the Randstad every 10 minutes
• Intercity bus that runs between Eindhoven and Amsterdam every 10 minutes
• The ability to use your bank card for everything
• The ability to easily switch different modes of transportation
• Significant improvements with the train connections to Berlin, Brussels, Paris and London

Van Veldhoven knows that a lot more funding will need to be put into the public transportation system to even get it to this point. But of course, without proposing these ideas, there is no way to prepare for it.

If this all goes to plan, by 2040 our transportation system just got a lot easier! How will this affect the train prices down our end? I guess we will have to find out.

Any thoughts? Let us know in the comments.