Rush hour trains extended

National railway operator NS is adding more carriages to trains that get too crowded during rush hour. This is part of a series of measures the company is taking after complaints about crowded trains.

In a letter to travelers associations the company announced that nine of its sprinters and five inter cities on the routes Amsterdam-Zwolle, Uitgeest-Rotterdam CS and Den Bosch-Nijmegen will be extended. The associations have long lodged complaints that trains are packed during the rush hours.

NS said the trains that travel between The Hague and Enschede and between Schiphol and Amsterdam South have already been made longer. A national working group has been established to handle all complaints about busy trains, and reconsider railway maintenance that could be annoying to travelers. Based on the advice from the working group, NS will decide when else to extend trains or deploy extra buses.

The railway company also announced that as of next week, when the new timetable takes effect, passengers on trains will be counted. “In order to judge if the prognoses about traveler numbers are correct,” the company said.