Plan for rush-hour charge for train tickets to be debated in the Tweede Kamer

Outgoing Infrastructure State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen presented a plan to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, that proposes charging train passengers higher ticket prices during peak hours. The Dutch national railway company NS will elaborate on the proposal, which will then be incorporated into the main rail network concession. This will be debated in parliament, where members will be asked for an opinion on the rush-hour charge, said a source from The Hague after a report from the Volkskrant.

NS has been a vocal proponent of a rush-hour charge for some time. Its CEO Wouter Koolmees expressed earlier this summer that he hopes to implement this charge by 2026. The goal is to encourage passengers to travel outside of rush hours. Trains are frequently overcrowded during peak times, while they are underused during off-peak hours. However, Koolmees did not specify how much the tickets should increase in price. The passenger organization Rover opposed this plan.

Current agreements on who can operate on most of the rail lines and under what conditions will expire in 2024. As a result, the ministry is currently negotiating the new main rail network concession for the years 2025 to 2033.

During these discussions, it was revealed that NS will no longer have exclusive rights to international destinations like London, Paris, and Berlin. The ministry had previously hinted at this decision, allowing companies to express interest in operating on specific international routes. For example, Arriva, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, has already drafted a plan for a rail connection between Groningen and Paris.

In recent years, NS has faced multiple financial setbacks. Since 2020, significantly fewer people have been using the train. In addition, NS has been grappling with rising energy costs. To assist the rail service, the outgoing Cabinet decided to convert their annual concession fee from 80 million euros into a subsidy. From 2025, NS will receive an annual subsidy of 13 million euros.

NS is usually allowed to raise ticket prices in line with expected inflation. However, in recent years, expected inflation has been much lower than actual inflation. Therefore, starting in 2024, the railway company can, in two phases, increase ticket prices by up to 7 percent on top of the annual increase based on estimated inflation.