New NS timetable starts today, over 1,800 additional trains per week

From Sunday, Dutch Railways trains will run according to the new timetable. NS will be running over 1,800 additional trains per week. For example, four Intercity trains will run every hour between the major cities, even outside rush hours and at weekends. During off-peak times, however, there are fewer trains on some routes.

Between Amsterdam Centraal and Almere Oostvaarders and Utrecht Centraal and Woerden, for example, there will only be two instead of four Sprinters per hour during off-peak hours. On Friday, the Sprinters will also only run twice an hour on the routes Utrecht Centraal - Hoofddorp and Hoofddorp - Leiden Centraal. Between Assen and Groningen, there will be more (four) Sprinters per hour from Monday to Thursday during rush hour. And between Arnhem and Nijmegen, a Sprinter now also runs four times an hour on weekdays outside rush hour.

The new timetable will also see more trains running between major cities such as Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht."These are extra trains and connections that keep our country accessible and that travelers can benefit from," NS CEO Wouter Koolmees told RTL Nieuws.

Koolmees believes that the adjustments will enable him to respond better to the "new travel behavior after the coronavirus years". According to him, Tuesdays and Thursdays have become "typical commuter days" since the coronavirus. Furthermore, fewer people travel by train on Fridays.

However, the Rover travelers' association is not entirely convinced by the new timetable. "Although more trains are running again, the pre-coronavirus timetable has still not been restored. Especially on Fridays and weekends, travelers will still have to deal with fewer trains and therefore possibly fuller trains," the association told RTL Nieuws.