Pandemic hit NS harder than expected

The pandemic was even harder on NS than expected, according to annual figures the rail company will publish on Thursday. Instead of the 1 billion euros loss NS expected to, 2020 left the rail company with a loss of 2.5 billion euros, insiders told newspaper AD.

The coronavirus and its lockdowns resulted in NS passengers halving last year, after a record of 1.3 million passengers in 2019. NS does not expect to reach that level again before 2025.

The pandemic also caused considerable damage to the shareholders equity. NS currently has enough cash to survive until the end of 2021. But without more government support, not long after that.

The government allocated 1.1 billion euros to keep public transit running according to schedule as much as possible until September. NS is getting the biggest part of that subsidy.

NS will have to cut costs to survive, the insiders told AD. The company already announced that it plans to cut 2,300 jobs - without forced redundancies as much as possible.