Kedeng kedeng: a track has been running through Zoetermeer for that long

Who hasn’t boarded the train at Zoetermeer station at least once? It is so obvious to take the train to Gouda or The Hague, but how long has Zoetermeer actually been connected to the Dutch rail network?

The hit ‘By Rail’ (Kedeng Kedeng) by Guus Meeuwis may come from a distant past, but the Dutch Railways go back much further. A brief history!

First railway line

The first railway line in the Netherlands was built by the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorwegmaatschappij (HIJSM), founded in 1837. The line runs from Amsterdam via Halfweg to Haarlem, between the Haarlemmermeer and the IJmeer. The line opened on September 20, 1839 and the first trains were pulled by the Arend and Snelheid locomotives. They cover the route, at about 40 kilometers per hour, in half an hour. Now it takes fifteen minutes to ride the intercity between Amsterdam and Haarlem.

First train in Zoetermeer

Fast forward to 1973. In that year the first train left Zoetermeer. The station in our city became part of a longer route: between Gouda and The Hague. Not much later, in 1992, the station was replaced with a more spacious station. The rail network was also further expanded to the routes we know today.

The Dutch rail network today

So that was a ride into history, but what is the current status of the railways? A quick overview of the most recent figures about the railway network in the Netherlands, from the ProRail annual report 2022:

• Total track length: 7,023 kilometers
• Number of substitutions: 6,220
• Number of level crossings: 2,348
• Number of signals: 11,592
• Number of stations: 398
• Number of kilometers traveled by train: 157 million.