Transport in the Netherlands

The Netherlands is both a very densely populated and a highly developed country in which transport is a key factor of the economy. Correspondingly it has a very dense and modern infrastructure, facilitating transport with road, rail, air and water networks. In its Global Competitiveness Report for 2014-2015, the World Economic Forum ranked the Dutch transport infrastructure fourth in the world.

With a total road network of 139,000 km, including 3,530 km of expressways, the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world; much denser than Germany and France, though not as dense as Belgium. The Dutch also have a well developed railway network, that connects most major towns and cities, as well as a comprehensive dedicated cycling infrastructure, featuring some 35,000 km of track physically segregated from motorised traffic.

The port of Rotterdam is the world's largest seaport outside East Asia, and the largest port of Europe. It connects with its hinterland in Germany, Switzerland and France through the rivers Rhine and Meuse. Two thirds of all inland water freight shipping within the EU, and 40% of containers, pass through the Netherlands.

Mobility in the Netherlands is considerable. On the roads it has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport. Additionally, Dutch airports handled at least 70 million passengers in 2016. Excluding air travel, the Dutch journey more than 30 km a day on average, which takes them just over an hour.

In 2010, 1.65 billion tons of goods traffic was registered, half of which moved by sea and inland shipping, and 40% by road transport. The remainder was mostly by pipelines; rail transport only handles 2% of freight movements through the Netherlands.

Road transport

With 139,000 km of public roads, the Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world - much denser than Germany and France, but still not as dense as Belgium. In 2013, 5,191 km were national roads, 7,778 km were provincial roads, and 125,230 km were municipality and other roads.

Dutch roads include 3,530 km of motorways and expressways, and with a motorway density of 64 kilometres per 1,000 km², the country also has one of the densest motorway networks in the world.

The Netherlands' main highway network (''hoofdwegennet'') - comparable to Britain's network of trunk roads - consists of most of its 5,200 km of national roads, supplemented with the most prominent provincial roads. Although only about 2,500 km are fully constructed to motorway standards, much of the remainder are also expressways for fast motor vehicles only.

Mobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car, meaning that while Dutch roads are numerous, they are also used more intensely than in almost any other country. Car ownership in the Netherlands is high but not exceptional, and slightly lower than in surrounding countries. Goods vehicles account for 20% of total traffic.

The busiest Dutch motorway is the A13 between The Hague and Rotterdam, with a traffic volume of 140,000 motor vehicles per day. The widest Dutch motorway is the A15/A16 just south of Rotterdam with 16 lanes in a 4+4+4+4 setup.

Traffic congestion is common in the Netherlands. The high population density generates significant traffic volumes on both motorways and regular highways. Most congestion occurs in the Randstad, but congestion is a daily structural problem around many larger cities. The Netherlands tries to counter this with an advanced motorway network, with Variable Message Signs and electronic signalization across most of the network. The number of passing motor vehicles is counted every minute of the day at some 20,000 measuring stations on the Dutch motorway network. A special feature of the motorways is the use of Porous Asphalt Concrete, which reduces noise levels, and allows rain water to be drained efficiently, for safety and expedient traffic flow under precipitation.

Cycling

Cycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport in the Netherlands. 27% of all trips are by bicycle - the highest modal share of any country in the world. Moreover: 36% of the Dutch list the bike as their most frequent mode of transport on a typical day. Some 85% of the people own at least one bicycle. All in all the Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million functioning bikes, which makes more than one per capita, and much more than the 11.3 million motor vehicles registered on the road. Almost as many passenger kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train.

Cycling infrastructure is comprehensive, and public policy, urban planning & laws are bike-friendly. Most roads except for motorways support cyclists, and bikeways are clearly signposted, well maintained and well lit. Dedicated cycle tracks are common on busy roads - some 35,000 km of track has been physically segregated from motor traffic, equal to a quarter of the country's entire road network. Busy junctions often give priority to cyclists, or they are equipped with cycle-specific traffic lights.

There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and at train stations. Since the start of the 21st century, parking spaces for 450,000 bicycles were built and modernized at over 400 train stations, and Dutch railways organizations ProRail and NS are calling for an expansion by another 250,000 by 2027. Already half of all Dutch train travelers cycle to the railway station, amounting to half a million cyclists daily.

In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked the Netherlands, together with Denmark as the most bike-friendly country in Europe.

Rail transport

Most distance travelled on Dutch public transport goes by rail. Like many other European countries, the Netherlands has a dense railway network, totalling between and of track, or 3,013 ''route'' km, three quarters of which has been electrified. The network is mostly focused on passenger transport and connects almost all major towns and cities, counting just over 400 train stations, more than there are municipalities in the Netherlands. The national rail infrastructure is managed by public task company ProRail, and a number of different operators have concessions to run their trains. ProRail also coordinates the totality of scheduling and proper meshing of the Dutch railway services.

Public passenger rail transport is operated mainly by Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) (''Dutch Railways''); minor parts by Arriva, Connexxion, Breng, DB Regio, NMBS, Veolia and DB Regionalbahn Westfalen. During week days all railway stations are serviced at least twice an hour in each direction. Large parts of the network are serviced by two to four trains per hour on average. Heavily used routes can be serviced by 8 to 16 trains an hour.

In recent years, the four largest railway stations in the Netherlands, the central stations of each of the largest cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, have all entered into major reconstruction and expansion. Rotterdam Central station was completely rebuilt, and was the first to complete, reopening in March 2014.
The Hague Central station and Utrecht Central station were reopened, after extensive reconstructions, in February and December 2016, respectively.
Amsterdam Central station has been undergoing a string of reconstruction works that started in 1997, and is yet to complete.

In 2015 a consultancy comparison of Europe's railway systems found the Dutch network the most cost effective for its performance, together with Finland's. Per kilometre of track, the Dutch rail network is the busiest in the European Union, handling over a million passengers a day. For 2019 some 2.2 million train journeys are scheduled to travel a record number of 165 million ''train'' kilometres (103 million train miles) — a growth of 28%, up from 124 million km in 2004. Until 2030 ProRail projects a further growth of ''passenger'' kilometres by another 45 percent. For 2019, also 8 percent more freight trains are scheduled than in 2018.

Future developments

On the initiative of two European parties: RailNetEurope and Forum Train Europe, a project called "Redesign of the International Timetabling Process (TTR)" should help to harmonise planning freight- and passenger trains across Europe, to optimize usage of existing rail tracks. Currently, almost all freight trains (96%) deviate from their original schedule, due to the dynamic nature of cargo transport. The new TTR must facilitate ProRail to let unscheduled freight trains run more easily, without requiring complex shifting in the regular passenger train timetables. As of 2020, timetables will be detailed to tenths of minutes (six second units), instead of whole minutes, to further optimise planning.

In the long term, significant capacity gains could only be achieved by adding more rail tracks, ''or'' transforming large portions of the Dutch railway system to run more like a metro / subway system, which could support up to 24 to 30 trains per hour on the busiest lines. This would however require a structural disentanglement of the current situation, in which trains, train drivers and conductors all have their own work schedules, following the Japanese model. However, at the moment there are no real plans for such steps.

Public transport

For longer distances the main public transport in the Netherlands is the train. Long-distance buses are limited to a few missing railway connections. Regional and rural public transport, serving small(er) towns is by bus. Local and urban public transport is also generally by bus, but the three largest cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague) all have extensive tram systems, that in each case also connect with adjacent cities in their respective urban agglomerations.

In addition, Amsterdam and Rotterdam also have several metro lines. Amsterdam's subway was expanded by a new ''"North-South"'' line in July 2018, after 15 years of construction, costing €3.1 billion.

Additionally, Rotterdam, The Hague and suburbs in between are connected by a light rail system called RandstadRail, and one line of the Rotterdam metro system connects all the way to The Hague Central station. Utrecht has its own light rail system, called fast tram, connecting the city with adjacent Nieuwegein and IJsselstein. Arnhem is the only Dutch city that still operates a trolleybus system.

Due to the large amount of waterways in the Netherlands, not every road connection has been bridged, and there are still some ferries in operation. In the Rotterdam and ''-Drecht'' towns region, a water bus public transport service operates as well.

Public transport operators are both the public transport companies run by the local government of the cities: GVB (Amsterdam), RET (Rotterdam) and HTM (The Hague), as well as private enterprise companies like Arriva

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