The Netherlands is a fantastic little place, but despite its world-leading urban planning, its railways leave a little to be desired. However, is this enough to bring it down, and is there anything to learn from NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen)?
Discord: https://discord.gg/WX2KuPk75Q
Music:
I Wish I Knew – Otis McDonald
Photography:
Myself
Koninklijke Begeer B.V. Ateliers voor edelsmeed- en penningkunst / Frits van Hall (Bodja 1899 – Gleiwitz 1945), Museon, Bundesarchiv, Jan Oosterhuis, Dennistw and Ninostar, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Het Utrechts Archief and Ministerie van Defensie, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Menno Huizinga, Malindine E G (Capt), No 5 Army Film and Photographic Unit, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Frans van Rooden, Dentie3, Moeerd, PPP, Vysotsky (Wikimedia), Donald Trung Quoc Don (Chữ Hán: 徵國單), Vera de Kok, Fantaglobe11, Dining Car from Wien, Austria, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Loz Pycock and Rob Dammers, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
35 Comments
The audio is a bit too quiet, the commentary especially.
Those tables are that small, non-pointy and thick because someone got hurt in a crash and I believe the table went into their abdomen.
The problem with your idea of merger is mainly politics, Belgium is mostly interested in adding more freight rail to the netherlands to use the Dutch network to get freight from its ports to Germany (netherlands has 6 railways into germany (4 usable for freight), Belgium has one), being less interested in passenger rail. While the netherlands is not intetested in freight rail, but mostly in passanger rail, both to Belgium and towards France.
Main issue is that both want the other country to pay for the nessecary railways. The netherlands paid 800 million gulden (400 million euro) to Belgium for the 20km stretch of belgian high speed line from Antwep to the dutch border.
Meanwhile Belgium wants to reopen a freight line trough the Netherlands to Germany.
But both countries cannot agree on who pays what (for the dutch section)
As the old line is build by belgium but sold to the netherlands, Belgium argues this means the netherlands has to pay all of the costs, since they are the owners.
While the Netherlands argues Belgium has to pay the costs of modernization and to build in additional measures to lessen the noise and other disruptions caused to the nature the line crosses trough, since they want the line to reopen and would be the ones profiting from it.
And disagreements like that (dutch trains are more puntual but more expensive) make a merger (mostly politically) impossible.
2:35 This is a misrepresentation of history. The Netherlands’ armed forces were offering serious resistance and could probably have delayed the german blitz for quite a while. This is why the Nazis forced capitulation by threatening to annihilate the cities by bombardment. Rotterdam’s city center proves they were serious.
Carpet? hahahaa, NO. That’s some outdated stuff man.
DB is basically the same, just with nicer long distance trains, worse stations, worse reliability and FAR cheaper prices. The Dutch IC trains really remind me of the double deckers here (Hamburg-Kiel), even though ours are RE trains and can be used with the incredibly cheap 49€/month Deutschlandticket valid on all public transport in Germany except for high speed rail. And most Dutch IC trains would be classified as regional here, so yes, this ticket is incredible
Thalys is OK provided you get one of their refurbished trains. If you get one of their older ones between Paris and Rotterdam/Amsterdam then it can be a grim experience as they are getting very shabby now with clouds of dust rising if you slap the seat. I have yet to catch a Thalys from Rotterdam to Paris on time as it is always late despite the short trip from Amsterdam and it is not a cheap service. (I say to my fellow Brits who want a European level of service and price in the UK to be very careful what they wish for … DB is particularly bad)
I like that you can just show up to the station and buy a ticket without worrying about schedules. First class in the double decker trains is pretty nice. There was basically a couch I rode in one from Eindhoven to Amsterdam. In Canada, along the Windsor-Quebec corridor, you have to look at the schedule and buy your ticket in advance. And you better not miss it because you'll be waiting a few hours for the next train if you're lucky. Also, only 5 trains a day.
I think in a country like this, carpets will not help with changing the peoples behaviour. Tho the newer looks on the train also helped a lot if you compare them with the older ones. The hospital theme make them look cleaner so people keep them that way.
Sadly ProRail (the company that owns the railway) has decided to remove many switches this will mean when there is a Breakdown train the other trains will be having much problems because they cant pass the broken train.
The Dutch rail network must more be seen as a Urban overground metro system.
On the most busy parts of the network they are upgrading the lines to 4 track width so that every 10 minutes a train can run.
On the less busy parts they use a half hour schedule
f.e. an Intercity at the hour and a sprinter at the half hour.
Abroad its very strange for us that there are trains who only run 2-3 times a day of every 2-4 hours!
Complaining alot about our rail operators is normal.
But maybe we are just to spoiled in comparacence whit other countries.
The real problem with the cleanliness and anti-social behavior is that the members of staff aren't visible enough and are not doing anything substantial against it. There are hardly any members of staff checking tickets or even aware of people's behaviour in trains, yet alone doing something. Also with the low turn-around time of too many trains the trains aren't being cleaned or even bins emptied. The NS now depends on roving teams of cleaners, who empty some bins while trains are running. But since nobody is really overseeing them, they often spend time just sitting in trains with garbage bags and not doing anything. Another problem is the new bins on new trains. They are placed in the vestibules rather than near the seats. People aren't taking their trash with them and people aren't going to give up their seat to trow stuff in the bin during busy services (not to mention lazy behaviour or even being able to reach the vestibules sometimes).
The grafitti in the NS trains only happens in cities in the west. I've never seen grafitti in the Arriva trains on the northern regional lines. The few times per year I had to take NS trains before covid they were always messy, especially the balconies an the toilets.
The reason that Most dutch trains cant go over 140 kmph Is due to the fact that the train system ATB Does not count over 140 And The soil of the netherlands is not good enough for 160 and higher without special ground work under the tracks, but so far there are a couple of lines rated for 160 and even 200
Regarding your short conclusions at the end:
Carpets will be more dirty, more easily. The hard floors are more easier to clean, and when NS finally starts getting enough cleaning staff again, the cleanliness of the trains should markedly improve.
Lighting is already dynamic. (don't forget that are many types of trains, in different states of renovation. Most major ones are: ICM, DDZ, VIRM, SLT and FLIRT. ICM and the unrenovated DDZ are the oldest ones)
Tables are provided in the 4 seaters (they might be small so we can argue about them needing to be bigger)
I don't really see your idea about the Belgian railways. If we want to improve cross border travel and international connections, a merger of two railways is a short term and short sighted solution. The problem is Europe wide needs to be broadly addressed to make it more appealing overall
I do agree with:
fares needing to be cheaper, this sadly won't happen in the near term
Minor things:
the card being ugly to you. Luckily that is just a matter of taste. Do note though that the card printings differ by transport organisation as they have the ability to give out their own versions which are fully compatible.
On the spartanness of the trains and it feeling like a commuter train. That is because they mostly are. Many people travel between the cities or from smaller places into the larger ones for work. Those journeys are often at most 1,5 hours. Groningen – Middelburg (one of the longest journeys I could think of) takes 04:42 hours (so a little less than 5) and is a very uncommon route. On the upside it is only a one changeover connection so you can get settled in.
10 years ago yeah. Nowadays I call it germany-lite when it comes to trains.
Great comment! (I'm Dutch). One thing, carpets …. I always wonder when I'm over in the UK, why there are so many carpets, even on the trains …….
Thalys is bought by Eurostart. The name Thalys (not the train service) will be phased out this year, and all international trains which used the be operated by Thalys will be called Eurostar. This just for info.
the nederlands has excellent railways
And still, all Dutch people are all complaining about the NS. ……….. And not for the abesnce of tables, carpet ???? and dynamic lightning, but for running late, or not running at all. Remember that the early electrification as you mentioned has a big draw back. In the Netherlands, 1500volt DC is used, which is not very reliable. This combined with the outdated safety system, as you mentioned, and the many issue with the railway switches. There was a time, the Dutch railway system was state of the art, but that was 50 years ago….
Please do not forget to mention the delays. My experience with the Dutch railways is notoriously bad w.r.t. delays. My 15 year old Golf with 400k km on the counter is more reliable than the NS.
The Dutch aren't really into carpets, they are relatively rare in Dutch homes. Hard floors are much easier to keep clean.
I do think that the railways in the Netherlands are very good and most of the services are always on time.
Carpets in Dutch trains is a very bad idea. 😂
The Dutch army was certainly capable of defending the country against the Germans. But after the Germans decided to destroy Rotterdam and threaten to destroy other cities the Dutch army had to no other option as to surrender
Dutch trains are by far the DIRTIEST TRAINS i have ever seen in Europe. It is truly a shame, considering it’s one of the wealthiest nations. Also the prices are CRAZY HIGH. From what I’ve seen, they’re the most expensive of the whole European Union.. and there are almost no reduced faires..
I would say, there is a fundamental difference in perceiving nederland train. NS feels like a metro system, but a nationwide, due to its frequency and common distance. You do not work in Amsterdam and live in vlissingen right?
things that need inprovement: lazy train conductors. They tend to be absent for most of the journeys made (especially on the NS-trains, not so much the other operators). This results in trains and passengers left to their own devices: people sitting in first class without paying extra, taking bikes on trains without paying the extra charge, making noise in silent carriages, and just a general feeling of unsafety on some routes. NS'. solution? Creating a whatsapp number to app when you feel unsafe… Train information in times of disruption is a lot to be desired for. Often communicated too late to the travellers. The other day I was traveling on a train which supposedly was cancelled. After this was brought to the attention of the conductor she replied with "I don't manage those messages". She didn't even feel inclined to announce the error to all the other passengers, and disappeared in her booth.
bro really called the netherlands the lowcountries 😭
No
Great video 👌🏻. I do think that the preference/love for carpet is a British cultural phenomenon and, also quite apparent from all the Dutch comments, quite the opposite is true for the Dutch.
I think there's really no need to talk about war in this video…
a part of the price its pretty good
So when did you received your paycheck from ns?
Why the board departes say in dutch is "Rijdt niet" English say: "Cancelled" and why no "Drive not"?