Wouter Koolmees News Today

King Willem-Alexander arrived at the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam for the opening of the National Holocaust Museum. The King was welcomed by Mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam and Arthur van Dijk, the King's Commissioner in Noord-Holland. Before entering the synagogue, the King was received in the Regency Room by Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Israeli President Isaac Herzog also took part in the so-called Ma'amad. The King gave a speech during the opening ceremony. Later, he will embark...

Train tickets on most routes in the Netherlands could rise by more than 10 percent in 2025, the Dutch national railway NS said on Tuesday. The company made this statement in its annual report, which showed a substantial loss of 191 million euros last year, its best yearly result since before the coronavirus pandemic. The NS already wanted to raise fares by 8.67 percent in 2024, but that was prevented when the Cabinet provided the railway with one-time additional funding of 120 million euros. Tha...

10% of NS trains are late and more passengers have to stand

The Dutch government needs to begin investing heavily in the passenger train system again to prevent train travel from becoming unaffordable for many people, said Dutch public transport passenger association Rover. The organization responded to the possibility of raising train tickets and subscriptions by more than 10 percent next year, which national railway NS said would be necessary without intervention.

Dutch national railway NS announced plans to dramatically improve service next year by adding an additional 1,600 trains per week to the timetable in 2025. The improvements include overall increases during rush hour and weekend evenings, as well as more trains throughout the day to connect Schiphol with Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Arnhem.

The Dutch national railway said it will continue to charge the added surcharge when passengers use the Intercity Direct service between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, even if unexpected maintenance means the trip will be delayed by up to 15 minutes. The trip normally takes about 30 minutes, and costs an extra 2.90 euros. "The high-speed train is no longer faster, so why is a surcharge still being charged? It seems more than reasonable to me to eliminate it," said Freek Bos from passenger adv...

The Intercity Direct between Amsterdam and Rotterdam will run twice an hour instead of the usual four times with immediate effect, NS announced on Thursday. Earlier in the evening, ProRail said that a speed limit had been imposed at several points on the high-speed line between the two cities, such as on some viaducts and bridges, because it is not safe enough to run there at high speed.

Cracked bridges limit train services between A’dam and R’dam

ProRail does U-turn on train services, no cuts despite cracks

One in ten trains operated this year by Dutch national railway NS faced delays, the NS and infrastructure firm ProRail announced on Friday. The rate in which trains faced delays was considerably higher than in previous years, also when compared to the years before the coronavirus crisis. On the route along the high-speed line, passengers were delayed on one in four train journeys.