NS suffered fifth straight substantial loss in 2024; Just 89% of passengers were on time

Dutch national railway NS announced its fifth consecutive loss-making year during its presentation of the company’s annual results on Wednesday. The rail carrier is still struggling with sharply higher costs, and said it could be another five years before passenger levels could return to 2019, the last full year of operations prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Those passengers who did ride the rails arrived late more often, with fewer than 90 percent of passengers arriving on schedule. Further, there were more violent incidents reported at train stations, but fewer incidents on the trains than in 2023.

When looking purely at the business operations and excluding one-off accounting items, the loss amounted to 141 million euros. A year earlier, the loss was 187 million euros. Last year, more money came in from the sale of train tickets and the operation of the stations, but the costs also rose sharply and passenger growth was disappointing at 4.3 percent.

Earlier, the NS feared that it would have to raise the prices of train tickets considerably to compensate for the poor figures. The NS had planned to boost fares by over 12 percent, but the government came in and covered half that amount.

In the end, whether due to reliability concerns or train fares, people are not riding trains as often as the NS had hoped, while rail works and disruptions mean the company is spending significant amounts on replacement services. The cost of alternative transportation to replace service disruptions amounted to 23 million euros.

“Despite all our efforts, the financial result is insufficient for a financially healthy NS,” said NS CEO Wouter Koolmees during the presentation of the annual figures. “For example, last year NS paid 533 million euros to the ministry and ProRail just to be allowed to drive on the track, an increase of 15 percent and 70 million euros more than in 2023.”

The NS said that it is still in talks with the government about a structural solution to prevent a significant fare hike from occurring at a later moment. “Good public transport is expensive,” Koolmees also noted. He further emphasized that the NS continues to make efforts to reduce costs. The company announced in August that it would cut five hundred office jobs. “In addition, we want to increase revenue by attracting more travelers with discounts for travel during off-peak hours.” NS has set itself the goal of posting a positive result again from 2027.

Koolmees said a “record number” of railroad maintenance projects took place last year, and that this work was carried out during daytime hours more often. These were also more likely to take place outside of holiday periods. Due to the many delays, the rail carrier also had to compensate many train passengers. Last year, the NS granted 335,849 refund claims for delays. That was almost 50,000 more requests approved than in 2023. The compensation amount increased from 3.1 million to 3.6 million euros.

Train delays everywhere, especially on high-speed lines

The rail operator did manage to meet an important government-mandated punctuality requirement, but just by a slim margin. Last year, about 89.4 percent of passengers arrived at their destination on time, a definition which includes delays of up to five minutes, with a minimum of 88.9 percent required. Punctuality was slightly better at 89.7 percent in 2023.

At the same time, the “tough autumn” that the NS predicted was not nearly as bad as the company had thought. Few inconveniences were caused by the fall weather last year, which prompted the company to say in December that it would be able to meet the government’s punctuality requirement.

There was a continuation of significant issues with the high-speed line, with just 69 percent of journeys on that faster routes arriving on schedule. That was down from 73.6 percent in 2023. The agreement with the Netherlands calls for an on-time rating of 82.1 percent on the high-speed lines.

Some of these issues were attributable to construction errors at railway viaducts, which led to speed restrictions on the high-speed lines for nearly the entire year. Trains on these routes were only allowed to increase speeds to 120 kilometers per hour at the beginning of December, but the goal is for domestic trains to operate at 200 km/h on these lines, and for international trains to move at 300 km/h on the routes.

The NS expects that the substandard HSL performance will continue this year. Further, long-term speed restrictions were incorporated into the timetable, and the company said it used efficiencies to guarantee it could run a sufficient number of trains during 2024.

As a result, the NS was able to report that it met the requirement for the chance of finding a seat during rush hour, instead of passengers having to stand. The NS said 94.6 percent of rush hour train riders were able to find a seat, though this was slightly less than in 2023.

Violent incidents on trains and at stations an ongoing issue amid societal problems, the NS said

The company also had problems with rising levels of physical violence. NS employees were more often victims of serious physical and verbal incidents last year than in 2023, according to the annual figures. In total, 1,095 reports were registered as being within the company's most serious categorization of incidents, 5 percent more than a year earlier.

These are incidents that are considered to be prosecutable and criminal. The most common reason for such an incident was an employee addressing someone for poor behavior. According to NS, the number of incidents involving aggression on the train decreased, but there were more reports at the stations. "We also see that the aggression has become more intense, especially against our Safety & Service employees," wrote the NS.

Often it was about threats made against employees. People also sometimes spat on NS personnel. Physical violence was recorded in 336 cases. The NS also stated that the number of injuries rose by more than a third to 338. For the most part it concerned "minor injuries".

The NS is trying to improve safety with different measures, like boosting security on trains and at the stations, with guards sometimes working with a canine partner. More is still needed, the NS said.

"In recent years, there has been a clear increase in society in [tougher demeanors], problems due to asylum seekers, sexually transgressive behavior, possession of weapons, people with incomprehensible behavior and polarization in society. NS is also confronted with this, but cannot solve it alone."

Bodycams for conductors, possibly all NS workers

The carrier has been pushing for some time now for NS security constables to be given the opportunity to independently identify suspects. The company also advocates for more opportunities to intervene during international train services.

The subject is also a frequent topic among national politicians in The Hague. Last month, the governing coalition insisted that NS conductors get bodycams. State Secretary Chris Jansen (Public Transport) wrote earlier that the NS will make a decision about this matter later this year, but the coalition factions thought the company was taking too long.

All of the NS security workers wear bodycams already, the Cabinet said in October. A "substantial investment" is needed to roll out the cameras to the 3,500 "service employees," including conductors.