NS sprinter trains to get toilets 4 years sooner

National rail firm Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) announced Tuesday that bathrooms will be installed on Sprinter trains across the Netherlands by mid 2021, nearly four years earlier than previously expected. State Secretary for Infrastructure and Environment Wilma Mansveld wrote that installation of the toilets will begin in the first quarter of 2018 and involve 131 trains. “Toilets will now be built into trains that were not initially designed to hold toilets," she wrote to the Chamber. The bathrooms come as part of a ten year agreement between the government, and both NS and ProRail concerning improvements to quality, service and passenger security which allowed for train fares to be increased even after the railway firms mishandled several high profile situations. Customers also complained of having to travel long distances on the Sprinter trains, which stop at smaller stations typically skipped by Intercity trains, without access to a toilet. Last year the group Treinen Met Toiletten lobbied for Sprinter trains to receive bathrooms, collecting 15,000 signatures and petitioning the House Committee on Infrastructure and Environment. The NS is currently negotiating with several companies to complete the project.