Biggest change in years coming to Dutch trains: ‘Something will change for every traveller’

Hopefully for the better

If the recent train disruptions have you swearing off the NS forever, don’t get ahead of yourself. The train service is announcing a new timetable aimed at improving our travel experience. 

Faster and more frequent trains, new routes, and more stations: these are the promises the NS is making for the upcoming year. 👇 

More trains for the hard workers and the party people

The new NS timetable will start on December 15. Aimed at making our train journeys faster and more flexible, it will run more trains than during the company’s peak year in 2019. 

How exactly will they do that? By reintroducing some old routes for starters. 

Every 15 minutes, trains will run on the Amsterdam Centraal-Almere, Amsterdam Centraal-Alkmaar and Utrecht-Woerden routes again. 

Additionally, the sprinter that currently runs every 10 minutes between Rotterdam and Dordrecht will extend its route, stretching to Den Haag Centraal. 

There will also be earlier trains in the mornings and later trains at night. To accommodate both the working and the partying population, this will be the case during both the week and weekends. 

More Sprinters to Schiphol 

If you’ve desperately been trying to leave the country in search of some sun but find yourself stuck at Amsterdam Centraal instead, the NS is keeping you in mind as well. 

While the capital’s main station is undergoing renovations, there will be a special sprinter that runs between Hoofddorp, Schiphol and Amsterdam Centraal every 7.5 minutes. 

This especially speedy Schiphol connection will start running on December 16. 

Faster trips to Brussels

If plane journeys aren’t for you, but going abroad is, travelling will become easier too. 

You might not be able to get far, but you can get to Brussels — in 45 minutes less and on twice as many possible trains as before. 

Not a completely smooth ride

However, despite the announced improvements, several challenges remain. 

Firstly, as every traveller who has tried to get anywhere these past weeks knows, there are currently major train track renovations happening that bring major disruptions with them.

This won’t stop just yet, so the announced changes might still be a bit unreliable as of December 15. 

READ MORE | Dutch TrainTok? This TikToker shames people running to catch Dutch trains

Moreover, these changes will cost you. The price of NS products will increase by 6.2% on average. I guess their focus right now is that public transport actually transports, not that it’s actually accessible to all the public. 🤑 

According to RTL, Dutch trains are already more expensive than in neighbouring countries, such as Belgium and Germany. 

On the bright side, the NS initially wanted a price increase of 12% but made a deal with the government that enabled them to get that number down to 6.2%. 

Even with the price increases, the new timetable sounds promising.

Come December 15, we hope you’re only ever late to work because you managed to get an extra few minutes of sleep… not because you got stuck in Haarlem at 7:55 AM. 

What do you think of the new timetable? Let us know in the comments! 

Feature Image:Depositphotos
Lina Leskovec
Lina Leskovec
Lina moved from Slovenia to the Netherlands in 2021. Three years in Amsterdam got her a Bachelor’s in Political Science and made her an advocate for biking in the rain. Her main expertise include getting the most out of her Museumkaart purchase and finding the best coffee spots in Amsterdam.

5 COMMENTS

  1. No apparent change tmon my route, Leeuwarden-‘t Harde. 1st train still 5:07 in the morning, no change in travelling time.

  2. I could be happy if we can get more late night and early morning trains between Eindhoven and Amsterdam, also Eindhoven and Rotterdam. I think it could be life changing to the night out people in the Noord Brabant.

  3. Timetable is one thing and improvements are welcome. Did they say anything about the tidiness? I have rarely seen trains so dirty, in Europe. Ok, I don’t say that NS owns the record, but the target should be to have cleaner and better maintained train cars.

  4. They canceled permanently (as garbage we know) intercity direct trains from Amsterdam Centraal to Rotterdam Centraal. I don’t understand this choice, it’s ludicrous and makes no sense to make it start from Zuid. Unless you consider rich people live and work there but I won’t go into conspiracies. Anyhow, this change is sh!t!

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