Transport & Environment (T&E), a European organisation for sustainable transport, researched 27 European train carriers — and found NS among the top five worst ones.
The study, published last Monday, evaluated carriers according to price, booking and travel experience, punctuality, compensation policy, cycling policy, and night services, reports Treinreiziger.nl.
How did the NS do?
Overall, the NS performed quite badly, obtaining the fifth-lowest score with an average of 5.5/10 points.
By comparison, the top three scores were 7.6, obtained by Italy’s Trenitalia, 7.4 for Czechia’s RegioJet, and 7.1 for Austria’s ÖBB.
But hey, at least the NS can say it’s not the worst active carrier in the Netherlands, this award goes to Eurostar, sitting at the very bottom with an overall score of 4.7.
Why did the NS rank so low?
The NS actually ranked quite well in some categories, such as punctuality (7.8), and compensation (8.3), being one of the few carriers that compensates passengers for more than the minimum amount required by EU law.
However, its prices were the culprit of its poor overall performance.
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T&E believes pricing is the ultimate factor driving European passenger choices between different means of transport. As a result, pricing was given more weight, accounting for 25% of the total score, compared to the approximate 15% awarded for other factors.
As a result, the NS’s meagre scores of 5.1 for “Price” and “3.8” for “Special Fares and Reductions” heavily lowered its score.
The NS spokesman is “surprised”
NS is “surprised” by the results, spokesman Erik Kroeze tells Trainreiziger.nl.
In particular, Kroeze questions the data used by the study, which he believes doesn’t consider the number of connections and networks at all and places disproportionate weight on factors such as the presence of catering and Wi-Fi on board.
For Kroeze, these services are not as crucial in a Dutch context, where “the average travel time of the NS traveller is only 22 minutes.”
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Additionally, Kreuze criticised the study’s evaluation of NS night services, which received 0 points, despite the carrier running both domestic and international night trains.
“There is better research”
As for the prices, the spokesman concedes that these are particularly high but blames this on political decisions.
“In other countries, the taxpayer pays part of the train ticket via subsidies. Here, no tax money goes to it, so the traveller pays relatively more for a ticket. That is a choice of the politicians,” he says.
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Overall, the Dutch carrier shrugged the study results. “There is better research being done, such as the national OV study. That says more as far as we are concerned,” Kroeze concludes.
How do you think the NS compares to other European carriers? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below.