Commuting to work? The NS wants more expensive train tickets during rush hour

Rent, utilities, and now public transport. The NS has joined the trend of making everything more expensive by introducing a “rush-hour tax” starting in 2026.

You know that job that you’re commuting to, working extra hard in so that you can hopefully get a promotion so that you can afford your rent in a housing crisis? Well, it might get more expensive to get to it.

Trains have been busier than ever during rush hour, and the NS wants to encourage people to travel outside of peak travel times. This means that tickets for busy routes will likely become more expensive during rush hour, reports de Volkskrant.

We can’t help but notice that there’s a limitation here: the rush hour is determined by working hours. So a lot of people can’t travel during other hours because they have to get to and from work.

Budget-neutral plans?

But don’t get mad at NS yet! They allegedly won’t make any more money with this extra charge for the time in the day when there are the most people travelling. Because that makes total sense.

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President of NS Wouter Koolmees states that this will be budget neutral. In an interview with de Volkskrant, he says that the rush-hour charge “leads to a discount on other routes. In this way, it will be quieter during rush hours, and many train tickets will become cheaper”.

Not the first time

Okay, full disclosure: NS has been trying to do this for years. There was talk of imposing a rush hour charge back in 2010 and 2017, but plans were never put in place.

So there’s hope that they don’t follow through this time either.

For now, we’ve still got some time before they impose it. Anything can happen between now and 2026.

Who knows, maybe by then, work will be fully remote, or you’ll be the CEO of your company, or we will simply teleport to work.

What do you think of this rush-hour tax? Tell us in the comments below!