Since I live in Rotterdam, I am often asked why I don’t visit the capital – where I work and many of my friends live – more often outside of work. Anyone who often travels the Rotterdam-Amsterdam route knows why. Although the cities are only 60 kilometers apart as the crow flies, you can hardly get back and forth by train.
The reality is that between the country’s two largest cities, almost one in four trains does not run on time, a figure that has only worsened in the past two months. The direct connection is also removed from the timetable at appropriate times, not least because the brand new NS trains appear to be particularly sensitive to disruptions.
The result: delays lasting tens of minutes and ultimately a journey in a packed, often too short train. For example, last week alone I could count on several hours of extra travel time and one day I was not even able to get to work at all due to an outage. I now take not one, but two trains earlier. And I don’t even travel during rush hour.
Entrepreneurial risk
NS, like many other companies, is struggling with major staff shortages, high material prices, long delivery times and, last but not least, the financial legacy of corona. A train set is expensive and will not be delivered tomorrow, just as a train driver will not be trained tomorrow – if you know where to find one. The rail network is also extremely complex. It is therefore easy to explain why the ‘user experience’ may be somewhat lacking.
The only question is who should pay for it – and why.
A one-way ticket from Rotterdam to Amsterdam (second class) costs 17.90 euros at full fare during rush hour. Anyone who does not wish to visit every intermediate station in the province on the way to work can add a surcharge of 2.90 for the IC Direct. All things considered, a day of commuting easily costs the same as a concert ticket. Now I don’t expect a live show for that money, but some certainty seems nice. After all, citizens pay a lot for it, and not just through the ticket price.
The government will pay deep into its pockets for the state transport company in the coming years. For example, the government is allocating 120 million euros to ensure that train tickets do not become more expensive. At least for the time being, because NS is free to increase the price of the tickets by 7 percent at a later point, in two steps, excluding inflation correction. The carrier will also no longer have to pay 86 million euros per year for the exclusive right to use the so-called main rail network. All in all, this amounts to 1.8 billion euros in ‘windfalls’ for NS. It paints the picture of an ailing state-owned railway company that has to be kept afloat in the wild waters of the free market.
Yet NS has been making almost exclusively profits for almost twenty years, and it does not have to adhere to the rules that the rest of the market is bound by. This is how the track rights for that main rail network become privately licensed instead of being outsourced, the entrepreneurial risk has been partly shifted to the state, and the consumer cannot vote with his feet by joining the competitor.
Dormant rush hour tax
In the meantime, NS is passing on the consequences of the rail capacity problems to society. While higher education was first kindly asked to adjust lecture times to peak hours, NS is now investigating whether it is possible to charge students more during peak hours. The week that NS was imposed the highest possible fine of 1.5 million euros for structural underperformance was also the week in which the company reduced compensation for delays for season ticket holders. You may wonder: does the student deserve a financial incentive because the Netherlands simply works at half past eight? Or is the route ticket holder complicit in the train delay that also causes him hassle at work?
The currently dormant rush hour tax is interesting. This was sold by NS CEO Wouter Koolmees as something that would not affect the bottom line of the traveler, but especially within the statistical reality of NS itself. That Koolmees tried to massage this plan through a platform like de Volkskrant, is significant. That’s train politics over the national intercom.
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The train in the Netherlands is too vulnerable to fully cope with the future
From the speaker above me I hear that the train I am on has been removed from the timetable after twenty minutes of start-up problems – the train staff does not know why. The train contents rush from track 13 to track 3, where the only other option departs within a few minutes within half an hour. Standing in the aisle I read that as a season ticket holder I am entitled to 1/36th of the monthly price: 3.30 euros. You can apply yourself. NS, I see in the frequently asked questions, is not liable for (in)direct damage resulting from delays.
I wonder who.
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