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Transport in the Netherlands

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Transportation in the Netherlands

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Rail transport

Railway tracks in the Netherlands (2001)

Railway tracks

The Netherlands has an extensive and much-used railway network, connecting virtually all cities and many towns with each other. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on most lines in the country, up to 8 or 10 trains an hour between the big cities. Trains are divided into stoptreinen (stop trains, stopping at all stations), sneltreinen (fast trains, stopping in bigger towns) and intercities, providing fast connections between the bigger cities.

ProRail takes care of maintenance and extensions of the national railway network infrastructure (not metros or trams), allocating rail capacity, and traffic control. The rail capacity supplied by ProRail is used by five public transport operators (see below) as well as cargo operators: Railion, ERS, ACTS, Rail4Chem. Also there is Herik Rail, with seven carriages, where trains can be chartered for parties, meetings, etc.

Not operational is the NESM Nostalgie Expresse.

See also europa.eu.

New tracks operated since December 2003

New lines under construction

The "Utrechtboog" each track over a separate viaduct, now completed. Some catenary poles are already mounted. Photo 10 July 2005

There are two crossings of regular railway lines, both non-level and with a station providing stops on both lines: Amsterdam Sloterdijk and Duivendrecht. A third crossingis under construction east of Zoetermeer, also non-level but without stops, one line is the HSL Zuid.

Non-electrified lines

(with timetable number)

  • Groningen-Delfzijl 84
  • Groningen-Roodeschool 83
  • Groningen-Nieuweschans Grens 85
  • Groningen-Leeuwarden 80
  • Leeuwarden-Harlingen 81
  • Leeuwarden-Stavoren 82
  • Zwolle-Kampen 63
  • Zwolle-Wierden 65
  • Almelo-Marienberg 72
  • Zutphen-Hengelo 73
  • Enschede-Glanerbrug Grens 522
  • Zutphen-Apeldoorn 67
  • Zutphen-Winterswijk 71
  • Arnhem-Winterswijk 70
  • Arnhem-Tiel 68
  • Nijmegen-Roermond 29
  • Landgraaf-Landgraaf Grens 525

Railways for public transport

Most trains have 1st and 2nd class; some local trains belonging to local railway operators NoordNed and Syntus only have 2nd class.

See also:

International trains

See also Rail transport by country#Europe.

Night service

There is a night service, called Nachtnet (Night Network, although it is just a single U-shaped line) with a hourly service connecting Rotterdam Central, Delft, The Hague Central, Leiden Central, Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam Central, Utrecht Central (i.e., most of the large cities in the Randstad as well as the main airport). Due to the U-shape, the travelling time from the first four stations to Utrecht is longer than during the day. (Other little map, also showing the railway line itself) Template:Map of cities served by the Dutch railways night service

Off-Peak Discount Pass

In Dutch: Voordeelurenkaart

For trains in the Netherlands there is an Off-Peak Discount Pass for €55/year, giving a 40% discount. Its validity starts at 09:00 AM (until 4:00 AM the next morning) on weekdays, and all day at weekends and in July and August. In the case of a group of up to four people, all get the discount even if only one has a pass.

Rail passes not requiring an additional ticket come in two versions: for a fixed route, and for the whole network. Both are mainly used by commuters. No off-peak discount version of these passes is offered since there is insufficient demand; commuters usually cannot avoid the rush hour.

Public transport in general

Public transport authorities in the Netherlands; see nl:OV-autoriteit (in Dutch)

Metros and trams usually run from around 06:00 until midnight. There are night buses in a number of cities, but only on Friday and Saturday night in the smaller ones. Sometimes these will only run during the first part of the night, or in one direction only; e.g. the Connexxion-Niteliner.

A public transport pass for train (2nd class), bus, metro and tram costs 3360.50 euro/year (2006). It is also valid on the ferries Vlissingen-Breskens, Amsterdam-IJmuiden and Rotterdam-Dordrecht. It is not valid on most other ferries, nor on the Thalys. Night services by train are included, those by bus are not.

The pass will not be valid on the HSL-Zuid.

Other public transport

All metros and trams and almost all buses share the Template:Nlil . For buses exceptions are:

  • neighborhood buses (small 8-person vans driven by mostly elderly volunteers in lowly populated areas; operated by bus companies but with different tariff system)
  • night buses
  • some bus services that are mainly for pleasure, such as serving an amusement park or beaches, e.g.:

Metro

(all standard gauge (1.435 m))

Tram / light rail

See also: Trams_in_Europe

Template:Nlis

All have standard gauge (1.435 m).

  • Rotterdam, Schiedam, Vlaardingen operated by RET
    • lines: 2 Charlois - Lombardijen NS, 4 Molenlaan - CS - Heemraadsplein, 5 Schiebroek - CS - Willemsplein, 7 Spangen - CS - Woudestein, 8 Spangen - CS - Oostplein, 20 CS - Lombardijen, 21 Schiedam Woudhoek - CS - De Esch, 23 Vlaardingen Holy - CS - Beverwaard, 25 CS - Carnisselande, total length appr. 100 km[1]
  • Utrecht, Nieuwegein, IJsselstein, operated by Connexxion (light rail in the sense of intermediate form between tram and train, with its own right-of-way, with level crossings with priority).
    • Stops for both branches: Moreelsepark - Stadsbusstation - Westplein - Graadt van Roggenweg - Ziekenhuis Oudenrijn - Vijf Meiplein - Vasco da Gamalaan - Kanaleneiland Zuid - Westraven - Zuilenstein - Batau Noord - Wijckersloot - Nieuwegein Centrum.
    • Further stops on Nieuwegein branch: Merwestein - Fokkesteeg - Wiersdijk - Nieuwegein Zuid.
    • Further stops on IJsselstein branch: St. Antonius Ziekenhuis - Doorslag - Hooge Waard - Eiteren - Clinckhoef - Achterveld.
  • Houten, operated by NS (light rail line, could be called metro, though not underground, with its own right-of-way, without level crossings).
    • power 1500 volt DC (tram has been adapted with a so-called 'downchopper' to allow the use of this higher voltage), overhead wires
    • picture: [8]

RandstadRail and other light rail projects

RandstadRail (named after the Randstad agglomeration) connects Rotterdam, The Hague, Zoetermeer and the suburbs in between with each other.

  • The Erasmus Line of the Rotterdam metro system goes all the way to The Hague central station. In the near future this metro will continue towards southern Rotterdam. At the moment it terminates at Hofplein.
  • RandstadRail lines 3 and 4 in The Hague are lightrail connections from The Hague South to Zoetermeer. Existing tram tracks in The Hague are adapted for the longer and wider vehicles.

See www.randstadrail.nl, [9] (pdf), and [10].

There are plans for the construction of a light rail line between Maastricht and Kerkrade and converting the Dordrecht - Geldermalsen railway line into a light rail service.

Bus

Both regional and city buses can be found throughout the country. Because of the extensive train system, the number of long-distance buses is limited to a few missing railway connections.

Template:Zuidtangent

Arnhem has a trolleybus system.

Bus companies include Arriva, Connex, Connexxion, Hermes, NoordNed, Syntus.

Cycle ways

The Netherlands have a very high amount of well-constructed bicycle lanes. Biking is a common way of transport, and there are big bicycle parkings near stations.

See Cycling in the Netherlands for further information.

Highways

Highway A15 - A16 in the Netherlands

total: 125,575 km
paved: 113,018 km (including 2,235 km of expressways)
unpaved: 12,557 km (1998 est.)

See List of highways in the Netherlands

Waterways

5046 km, of which 47% is usable by craft of 1000 metric ton capacity or larger, see List of waterways and [11].

Pipelines

crude oil 418 km; petroleum products 965 km; natural gas 10,230 km

Ports and harbors

Amsterdam, Delfzijl, Den Helder, Dordrecht, Eemshaven, Groningen, Haarlem, IJmuiden, Maastricht, Rotterdam, Terneuzen, Utrecht, Vlissingen)

Merchant marine

total: 563 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 4,035,899 GRT/4,576,841 DWT
ships by type: bulk 3, cargo 343, chemical tanker 41, combination bulk 2, container 56, liquified gas 20, livestock carrier 1, multi-functional large load carrier 8, passenger 8, petroleum tanker 25, refrigerated cargo 32, roll-on/roll-off 16, short-sea passenger 3, specialized tanker 5 (1999 est.)
note: many Dutch-owned ships are also operating under the registry of Netherlands Antilles (1998 est.)

Airports

Schiphol, the Amsterdam airport, is the main airport in the Netherlands, and the fourth largest in Europe. There are also a number of regional airports, the most popular being Eindhoven Airport, Maastricht Aachen Airport, Rotterdam Airport and Groningen Airport Eelde. See List of airports in the Netherlands

Ministry

Transport in the Netherlands falls under the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.

See also

External links

Railway maps:

Line maps for other public transport:

The maps by Carto Studio's, though meant only as examples, may also be of some use.

Oddly and unfortunately, for large parts of the Netherlands bus line maps do not seem to be available on the web. However, they are often posted at bus stops and can sometimes also be obtained on paper in bus information offices (sometimes in a less detailed version, e.g. without bus stops being marked). Connexxion has 13 maps on paper that can be sent by mail on request, see Connexxion maps.

Maps showing all streets and also public transport

General map showing railways and stations well (i.e. also in smaller scales), but, oddly, without station names:

  • NS rail travel planner - contains a detailed map of the whole country; to view a location, specify it as destination and choose an arbitrary point of departure, then ask for the route map of the post transport from the station. If you specify "Public transport" as means of pre or post transport, you will be redirected to http://www.ovr.nl with the corresponding map.

General maps showing railways well, but stations only in larger scales,

General map showing railways well, but stations only when highly zoomed in, and no station names:

  • Yellow pages / Telephone directory - A map (plattegrond) is provided after searching for a company or person; if one just wants to use the map, do an arbitrary search like [25], select Plattegrond and by zooming out and selecting an area to zoom in go to any part of the map.

Of these three, only the NS map shows metro lines, without stations, and none show tram or bus lines. www.ovr.nl shows only the single bus stop concerned on the map, not the line or the other stops.

For general maps see also Geography of the Netherlands. There are hardly any maps on Internet that show virtually all streets as well as tram or bus lines (the maps of Dordrecht and Werkendam mentioned above seem to be the only ones, with on the latter not all lines). However, such maps are available on paper for many cities.

  1. ^ http://www.wonen.rotterdam.nl/smartsite2004267.dws
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