NS, ProRail fined for poor service

The NS has to, once again, pay a fine of €1.75 million due to travelers being dissatisfied with the company's services. ProRail is also threatened with a €1.5 million fine if services don't improve this year, ANP reports. State Secretary for Infrastructure, Wilma Mansfeld, has made this decision and has written a letter to the House of Parliament. There is a lot of anger about the NS, as they did not hold themselves to agreements made in 2012 with the government about client satisfaction. The company received a provisional fine for this. Travelers were unhappy about trains not arriving on time. They also found that there should be more seating during rush hour, and that service employees should be more approachable. These points were not improved last year, which means that the NS must now pay the fine of €2.75 million. The company announced a loss of €43 million last year, has already prepared for the fine. Mansveld is, for similar reasons, laying down a provisional fine to the NS for 2013 of €2.75 million. This will be waived if the company performs well in 2014. "I expect that the NS will pull out all the stops to improve performance and to make their customers happy" Mansveld said. ProRail is also under threat of being fined, due to punctuality of cargo trains on regional train tracks not being up to snuff last year. In 2012 and 2011, the track administrator did hold himself to agreements. Mansveld will decide beginning 2015 if all the 2013 fines are definite.