It turns out that “new year, new me” does not apply to the Dutch national rail service, NS. Instead, they’re now coming to us with a warning. Uh-oh.
Yup, the NS has asked train passengers in the Netherlands to prepare for another bad year marked by delays, cancellations, and disruptions.
1 in 10 journeys delayed
If you’re a frequent traveller, you won’t be surprised when I tell you that in 2023, one in ten NS train journeys did not reach their destination at the prescribed ETA.
Needless to say, NS and ProRail did not meet their joint goals for the year. 😬
Why? The companies name a variety of reasons, including work on the rails, renovations of the Schiphol tunnel, sinking tracks in Zeeland, storms, crowds, staff shortages, and speed limits on the high-speed line.
With large power outages, winter weather, and cracked tracks causing problems on the rails in January, it looks like 2024 is going a very similar route. 🚏
It gets worse before it gets better
As an NS spokesperson tells NU.nl, there is a lot of work planned on NS tracks and trains this year — and helaas, it cannot always be done in a way that suits travellers.
Rail work will predominantly take place during the week and during the daytime this year rather than at night and on weekends.
Train maintenance will also take longer than the NS would like due to the fact that there are too few contractors and mechanics.
While the NS is working on resolving its staff shortages, NS and ProRail are aiming for a punctuality of 93.7% in 2024. For reference, it is now at 88.9%.
Dutch rail system works well compared to other countries
Although we all like to complain about the NS, the Netherlands is actually doing very well internationally.
In fact, there are only a few countries with a better functioning rail system than us, including Japan and Switzerland.
How did you experience the NS in 2023? Share your thoughts in the comments!
I fail to understand how a rich (and rather small) country like Netherlands has such a poorly managed railway system.
If we refer to 5-10 mins of delay, it’s ok ish. Unacceptable, but supportable.
However if we refer to the quality of traveling and I mean dirtyness of the trains (inside and outside), then I guess that only African and Indian trains can beat Netherlands. I have never seen such a mess. Yellow trains which are actually black on the outside; horribly dirty floors that look like were never cleaned on the interior. It is a shame!
Anyhow, the German Railways are the most horrible ever. Endless delays and problems.
Kak system fix your fuggen problems
Eskom and NS are in the same boat
NS is unbelievably expensive and highly unreliable transport. On the route from Almere to Rotterdam and back problems occur 95% of the time cancellations and delays are constant, every day! Now we don’t even want to go from Almere to Amsterdam to walk on the weekend, because we know that something will definitely happen with the trains in the very last minute! It is not the transport for the Netherlands!
Terrible service in outrageous price.