Public Transport In The Netherlands
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The main public transport in the Netherlands for longer distances is by train. Long-distance buses are limited to a few missing railway connections. Regional and local
public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...
is by bus and in some cities by metro and tram. There are also ferries. There are 18
public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...
authorities in the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
: the
Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (; I&W) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for transport, aviation, public works, land management and water resource management. The Ministry was created in 2010 as the Ministry of Infrastructur ...
, OV-bureau Groningen Drenthe (OVBGD), each of the 10 other provinces, Regio
Twente Twente ( , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germanic people ...
, Stadsregio Arnhem Nijmegen, Bestuur Regio Utrecht (BRU), (formerly Stadsregio Amsterdam), Metropoolregio Rotterdam Den Haag (MRDH), and
Samenwerkingsverband Regio Eindhoven The ''Metropoolregio Eindhoven'' (MRE; ), until 1 January 2014 the ''Samenwerkingsverband Regio Eindhoven'' (SRE; ), is a regional governmental agency for the city region of Eindhoven, Netherlands. The MRE comprises 21 municipalities in the Eindh ...
(SRE). They issue concessions for regions or specific lines. The main operators are
Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...
(NS),
Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...
,
Connexxion Connexxion formerly Transdev#Netherlands, Transdev Netherlands, Veolia Transport Nederland, Veolia Transport Nederlands and Connex Netherlands is a large Public transport in the Netherlands, public transport company in the Netherlands, operatin ...
,
Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a France-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. Transdev was formed on 3 April 2011 via the merg ...
, Syntus,
Qbuzz Qbuzz is a public transport company in the Netherlands that operates services in Friesland, South Holland, Utrecht, Drenthe and Groningen. Founded in 2008, it was a subsidiary of Nederlandse Spoorwegen from 2013 until 2017. It is currently ow ...
and the local operators GVB, HTM, RET. Qbuzz operates public transport in Utrecht on behalf of Bestuur Regio Utrecht using the trademark U-OV. Public transport translates as ''openbaar vervoer'' in Dutch, which is abbreviated as ''ov''. The abbreviation appears in names related to public transport.


Modes


Train

Rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
for
public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...
is operated mainly by
Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...
(NS), minor parts by
Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...
, Syntus,
Connexxion Connexxion formerly Transdev#Netherlands, Transdev Netherlands, Veolia Transport Nederland, Veolia Transport Nederlands and Connex Netherlands is a large Public transport in the Netherlands, public transport company in the Netherlands, operatin ...
,
DB Regio DB Regio AG () is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and therefore part of the DB Regio business segment, which also includes DB Regionn ...
and
Eurobahn Eurobahn GmbH & Co. KG is a railway operator in Germany, established in 1998. It operates 15 regional train services in 4 contracts in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with cross-border services including Lower Saxony and the Netherlands. ...
. The Dutch rail network is the busiest network in the entire world.


Metro

Three
rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...
systems currently operate in the Netherlands. Both are largely
grade-separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...
, have
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
, track, and use 750 volt DC
power supply A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, electric current, current, and frequency to power ...
throughout. *
Amsterdam Metro The Amsterdam Metro () is a rapid transit system serving Amsterdam, Netherlands, and extending to the surrounding List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipalities of Diemen and Ouder-Amstel. Until 2019, it also served the municipality o ...
, serving
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
,
Diemen Diemen () is a town and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality with a population of in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is located approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) southeast of Amsterdam's Amsterdam ...
, and
Ouder-Amstel Ouder-Amstel () is a municipality in the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the f ...
, operated by
Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf GVB is the municipal public transport operator for Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, operating metro, tram, bus and ferry services in the metropolitan area of Amsterdam. History The forerunner of the GVB, the ''Gemeentetram Amsterdam ...
(GVB) *
Rotterdam Metro The Rotterdam Metro () is a rapid transit system operated in Rotterdam, Netherlands and surrounding municipalities by RET. The first line, called ''Noord – Zuidlijn'' (North – South line) opened in 1968 and ran from Centraal Station to Zu ...
, serving
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
,
Schiedam Schiedam () is a large town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of the city Rotterdam, east of the town Vlaardingen and south of the city Delft. In the south, Schi ...
,
Spijkenisse Spijkenisse () is a large town in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. Following an administrative reform in 2015, it is part of the List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of Nissewaard, and ha ...
,
Albrandswaard Albrandswaard () is a municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of as of , and covers an area of of which is water. The municipality of Albrandswaard consists of the villages o ...
, and
Capelle aan den IJssel Capelle aan den IJssel ( ; ) is a large town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of in , and covers an area of , of which is water. It is situated on the eastern edge o ...
, operated by
Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram (RET; ) is the main public transport operator in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It started in 1905 when they took over the city tram lines from RTM (Rotterdamsche Tramweg Maatschappij). It currently operates 64 bus lines, 11 ...
(RET) *
RandstadRail RandstadRail () is a tram-train network in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area in the west of the Netherlands that is jointly operated by HTM Personenvervoer (HTM) and Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram (RET). It connects the cities of Rott ...
line E, serving
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
,
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
and the suburbs in between, running partially on the lines of the Rotterdam Metro and partially shared with tram lines 3 and 4 Both the Amsterdam and Rotterdam networks largely use
third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a track (r ...
power supply, but include sections using
overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, Electric multiple unit, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union ...
s. The RandstadRail metro line E uses third rail in the sections shared with Rotterdam metro trains, but mostly use overhead wires. These sections also have some
level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, o ...
s (with priority), and could therefore also be called ''sneltram'' (
light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
) instead of metro; however, they are integrated in the metro system and use vehicles that can switch between both systems.


Trams and light rail

Three cities in the Netherlands operate large
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
networks. They all run on
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
, track, and use overhead wires electrified at 600 V DC. * Amsterdam tram network (operated by GVB), serving
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
,
Diemen Diemen () is a town and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality with a population of in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is located approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) southeast of Amsterdam's Amsterdam ...
,
Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands, with a population of 95,996 as of 202 ...
* Rotterdam tram network (operated by RET), serving
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
,
Schiedam Schiedam () is a large town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of the city Rotterdam, east of the town Vlaardingen and south of the city Delft. In the south, Schi ...
,
Vlaardingen Vlaardingen () is a large town and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in South Holland in the Netherlands. It is located on the north bank of the Nieuwe Maas river at the confluence with the Oude Maas. The municipality admin ...
,
Barendrecht Barendrecht () is a town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, near Rotterdam, South Holland. The municipality had a population of in , and covers an area of of which is water. The municipality of Barendrecht also includes Barendrech ...
* The Hague tram network (operated by HTM), serving
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
,
Rijswijk Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was 59.642 in 2024, and it has an area of , of which is water. The municipality also i ...
,
Leidschendam-Voorburg Leidschendam-Voorburg () is a municipality in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, just northeast of The Hague. It had a population of in , and covers an area of of which is water. Origin The municipality of Leidschendam- ...
,
Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
,
Nootdorp Nootdorp () is a small town in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is bordered by Zoetermeer to the north, by The Hague (specifically Leidschenveen-Ypenburg) to the west, by Delfgauw to the south and by Pijnacker to the east. Nootdorp was ...
, Wateringen There are also two
light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
networks in the Netherlands. They all run on
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
, track, and use overhead wires electrified at 750 V DC. *
Utrecht sneltram The Utrechtse sneltram (; literally ''Utrecht fast tram''), operating under the brand name U-OV, is a light rail system in the Dutch city of Utrecht. The system consists of three tram routes connecting Utrecht Centraal railway station with the r ...
(operated by U-OV -
Qbuzz Qbuzz is a public transport company in the Netherlands that operates services in Friesland, South Holland, Utrecht, Drenthe and Groningen. Founded in 2008, it was a subsidiary of Nederlandse Spoorwegen from 2013 until 2017. It is currently ow ...
), with lines connecting
Utrecht Centraal railway station Utrecht Centraal, officially Station Utrecht Centraal (), is the Transport hub, transit hub that integrates three bicycle parkings, two bus stations, two tram stops and the central Train station, railway station for Utrecht, Netherlands. It is t ...
to
Nieuwegein Nieuwegein () is a municipality and city in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is bordered on the north by the city of Utrecht, the provincial capital. It is separated from Vianen to the south by the river Lek and borders on IJsselstein in the ...
,
IJsselstein IJsselstein () is a municipality and city in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. IJsselstein received city rights in 1331. IJsselstein owes its name to the river Hollandse IJssel which flows through the city. It is a major commuting su ...
and
Uithof Utrecht Science Park (also known as De Uithof) is a neighbourhood in Utrecht and the largest science park in the Netherlands. It is located to the east of the city. It is the largest campus of Utrecht University. Apart from the faculties of Law, Hu ...
*
RandstadRail RandstadRail () is a tram-train network in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area in the west of the Netherlands that is jointly operated by HTM Personenvervoer (HTM) and Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram (RET). It connects the cities of Rott ...
lines 3 and 4, serving
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
,
Zoetermeer Zoetermeer () is a city in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950. By 2023 this had grown to 126.998 ...
and the suburbs in between, running partially on the lines of the Hague tram network and partially shared with metro line E In the Netherlands, the only difference between a tram and a light rail line is considered to be that light rail doesn't share its lane with other traffic. Some lines could be partially seen as light rail such as Amsterdam tram line 26, which is only mixed with other traffic on both its balloon loops. However, Amsterdam tram line 25 does not operate in mixed traffic and operates as light rail using bidirectional trams that can be coupled in pairs.


Bus

Both regional and city
public transport bus service Public transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. History of buses Origins While there are indications o ...
s can be found throughout the country. Because of the extensive rail network, long-distance bus services are limited to a few connections where train connections are missing or would require a considerable detour. In the
Randstad The Randstad (; "Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly crescent- or Circular arc, arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that includes almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Net ...
area lines with a high frequency and higher average speed have been branded as
R-Net The main public transport in the Netherlands for longer distances is by train. Long-distance buses are limited to a few missing railway connections. Regional and local public transport is by bus and in some cities by metro and tram. There are also ...
. All bus operations (except for in the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague) are awarded by a transport authority to companies by a public tender. The concessions can last up to 10 years, with extensions of a few years if the transport authority is satisfied. Operators include
Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...
,
Connexxion Connexxion formerly Transdev#Netherlands, Transdev Netherlands, Veolia Transport Nederland, Veolia Transport Nederlands and Connex Netherlands is a large Public transport in the Netherlands, public transport company in the Netherlands, operatin ...
, GVB,
Hermes Hermes (; ) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology considered the herald of the gods. He is also widely considered the protector of human heralds, travelers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He is able to move quic ...
(including
Breng Breng is the name of a public transportation concept in the Stadsregio Arnhem–Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Novio (a branch of Connexxion) was the operator from 13 December 2009, for a period of 3 years. On 9 December 2012 Hermes, another branch ...
), HTM,
Qbuzz Qbuzz is a public transport company in the Netherlands that operates services in Friesland, South Holland, Utrecht, Drenthe and Groningen. Founded in 2008, it was a subsidiary of Nederlandse Spoorwegen from 2013 until 2017. It is currently ow ...
, RET, EBS and Syntus.
Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...
is the only city that still operates
trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
es and maintains an extensive network. The
Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (; I&W) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for transport, aviation, public works, land management and water resource management. The Ministry was created in 2010 as the Ministry of Infrastructur ...
has decided that from 2025 all new buses need to be zero emission. This encourages operators to invest in electric vehicles. In December 2016, the first large electric (non-trolley) bus fleet was launched in Eindhoven, with 43 vehicles, followed in December 2017 by a fleet of 100 vehicles for services around
Schiphol Airport Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport (, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands, and is one of the major hubs for the SkyTeam airline alliance. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municip ...
.


R-net

R-net nl">:nl:R-net">nl/nowiki> (or Randstadnet) is a collaborative project of governments and public transport operators providing high-quality public transport in the
Randstad The Randstad (; "Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly crescent- or Circular arc, arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that includes almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Net ...
area of the Netherlands. Lines in the Randstad area with a high frequency and higher average speed have been branded as R-Net. These lines (be they bus, tram, metro or train) all use the R-net red-grey colour scheme and carry the R-net logo, regardless of the company operating the line. R-net is an initiative of the cooperating provinces of
Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and newest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the countr ...
,
North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...
and
South Holland South Holland ( ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.8 million as of January 2023 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely populated areas. ...
, plus the
Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area The Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area () is a metropolitan area encompassing the cities of Rotterdam and The Hague as well as 21 other municipalities. It was founded in 2014. The area has a population of approximately 2.7 million across . ...
and Vervoerregio Amsterdam (Amsterdam regional transport). Carriers offering R-net services are Allgobus, Arriva, Connexxion, EBS, GVB, HTM, NS, Qbuzz and RET. According to its website, R-net requires certain standards to be met. Services must be reliable and punctual, fast, frequent, accessible (e.g. for wheelchairs) and attractive with respect to stop design and comfort. All R-net stops must be fully accessible, and equipped with waiting shelters and digital displays showing real-time travel information. Transfers between R-net services must be quick and easy. In Amsterdam, Vervoerregio Amsterdam decided to use the R-net livery and logo on all metro trains but on only one tram line ( 25). The GVB blue-white livery is used on all other Amsterdam tram lines. In the GVB's order for 72 15G trams from
CAF CAF or caf may refer to: Armed forces *Canadian Armed Forces (Canadian Forces), the Canadian Air Force, Army, and Navy *Canadian Air Force, now the Royal Canadian Air Force *Republic of China Air Force, the air force of the Republic of China (Tai ...
, 25 trams have in R-net livery with the remainder in GVB livery.


Hours of service, and frequency

On most lines there is no public transport at night. Services usually start between 5:00 and 7:00 on weekdays, a bit later on Saturdays, and even later than that on Sundays. Apart from quiet, rural lines, most services end just after midnight. Also there is no public transport from 20:00 on New Year's Eve. There is a night service on some train routes. There are
night bus service Night service, sometimes also known as owl service, is a mode of public transport service operated during the night hours. As an intermediate approach – between providing full service around the clock and stopping services altogether – it p ...
s in a number of cities, but only around Amsterdam services are on all nights, other cities only have services on Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights. Sometimes these run during the first part of the night only, or in one direction only. Night buses usually have separate fares, which are higher than the daytime fares. From November to March the stretch Hoek van Holland Haven - Hoek van Holland Strand (not on the hoofdrailnet) is served only between 11 am and 4 pm. Even apart from special rush hour bus lines, some bus lines do not operate on Saturdays, Sundays and/or evenings. The frequency of domestic trains is at least twice per hour during daytime on weekdays, except on two services by
Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...
. Almost all timetables are planned on a
clock-face schedule A clock-face schedule, also cyclic schedule, is a public transport timetable, timetable system under which public transport services run at consistent intervals, as opposed to a timetable that is purely driven by demand and has irregular headways. ...
since 1971 and apart from a few regional lines all trains have a symmetry around x:00/x:30 as have neighboring countries. On many lines services are combined to 4x per hour during day or peak times. From December 2017 Intercity services between Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven are increased to six trains per hour.
Zwolle Zwolle () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the Capital city, capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel ...
and Zupthen are full hubs, with (almost) all trains arriving and departing around the same time, creating a connection from and to each direction. At the larger stations frequencies are higher and only certain cross-platform transfers are timed. Metros operate on frequencies of at least 4x per hour, with 6 to 10 trains per hour during day and peak times, but often two lines are combined on busier stretches, increasing the total frequency. Trams mostly have a frequency of 6x per hour, with less services on late evenings and Sundays, but busy lines can have up to 15 trams per hour. Buses vary greatly in services, depending on the population density of the area, quality of service and demand for transportation. Rural bus services have typically hourly or half-hourly frequencies, but if a bus line serves multiple important hubs or towns, frequencies can be much higher. In larger cities the frequencies are mostly 4x per hour or more. Line 12 in Utrecht was the busiest bus line in the Netherlands, with up to 30 departures per hour using bi-articulated buses. During peak times there was no fixed frequency, but staff members on the bus platforms monitored the passenger flow and would call a new bus in as soon as the previous bus was filled. As of 15 December 2019 the busline was replaced with the newly built tram 22.


Information


Route planners

A country-wide public transport route planners for all modes is 9292. A similar route planner is of NS. However, it does not show any maps, except of the railway stations of departure, transfer, and arrival and their surroundings. Apart from NS some more operators offer their own route planner, but these may not take other operators into account. Connexxion's route planner produces a map showing the points of departure, transfer and arrival, connected by straight lines.


Maps

Prorail provides a railway map showing all stations, and showing at a point where lines A, B and C meet whether A splits into B and C, or B into A and C etc. NS provides a schematic railway map with all railways for public transport, ''not'' showing at a point where lines A, B and C meet whether A splits into B and C, or B into A and C etc., so it does not show whether a train has to reverse direction when going from A to B etc. There is also a dynamic version showing disruptions and a version with indications of routes of train series, with their frequencies and stops. Common varieties of bus route maps include: * map showing bus network, with only a selection of stops * map showing bus network, with all stops * small map showing the route of a single bus line, with all stops The first two types also clearly show railways and all railway stations. Highways are shown, but characteristic of these maps is that they are shown unobtrusively. The maps are provided as pdf-file of up to 7MB. For some pdf-viewers on smartphones this may be rather large. In that case a workaround is to create submaps with PrintScreen. Since the regular pdf-viewer allows any choice of zoom level, any selection of the map, and the full-screen modus, this allows the creation of submaps with the maximum of information that fits on the screen. Some operators only provide dynamic maps which cannot be directly downloaded. A workaround is downloading detail maps one by one (if necessary produced by PrintScreen), but, more than making submaps from a large pdf-file as mentioned above, this is a cumbersome procedure and results in a large collection of small detail maps without convenient navigation between them. (Even more cumbersome but with a better result is to paste groups of these small maps together.) The route planners do not provide in their results links to any of these route maps, these maps have to be looked up separately.


Timetables

Public transport timetable A public transport timetable (also timetable and North American English schedule) is a document setting out information on public transport service times. Both public timetables to assist passengers with planning a trip and internal timetables ...
s are partly available.


Train

The ''Spoorboekje'' is a collection of time tables in the form of pdf files, covering a year, but with intermediate renewal when needed (the physical timetable book was abolished in December 2010). It covers all operators of
rail transport in the Netherlands Rail transport in the Netherlands uses a dense railway network which connects nearly all major towns and cities. There are more train stations than there are municipalities in the Netherlands . The network totals on of track; a line may run b ...
, except those of
heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...
s; it gives the departure times (and sometimes arrival times), but not the tracks. For international trains to and from the Netherlands, for the data for the parts abroad only a summary is given. It provides tables with services in columns, arranged by timetable number and direction (''a'' and ''b''). A train route can involve multiple timetable numbers; an equal train service number indicates that columns in two tables refer to the same train. For train services which do not operate daily throughout the year there are footnotes explaining the whole set of days of the year on which it operates. Since a few years, the website ''treinreiziger.nl'' gives out a private timetable for the Netherlands. These are available online and at some station shops.


Bus, tram and metro

PDF files with timetables (sometimes many small files, sometimes a few large ones) are available on the sites of several operators. The tables are arranged similarly to the ''Spoorboekje'', except that for each line and direction there are three separate tables: for Monday-Friday, for Saturday, and for Sunday. Also, they show the times for selected stops only. Some operators only provide for reading the tables on the screen, not for downloading them. A workaround is using PrintScreen, but this is cumbersome if one wants to download many pages. In at least one case OV-gids Overijssel
/ref> the pdf file is apparently prepared for being printed only, not for reading from the screen: the tables are rotated. Not only are some screens not easy to rotate, also the tables are often wider than high, like a screen, making rotation less desirable. Thus every time the file is loaded the rotate function has to be applied. Also paper leaflets or small booklets with the timetable of a single line or a few lines are often available free of charge, and larger booklets are often for sale.


Toilets

Most trains and some ferries have a toilet, while buses, trams and metros do not. See also toilets in trains in the Netherlands and hoofdrailnet.


See also

*
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 ...
*
Train routes in the Netherlands The following list focuses on train routes in the Netherlands. A list of all train stops can be found at the Dutch railway services. Train number series Below are the train routes in the Netherlands as of 2011, along with the correspo ...
*
Railway stations in the Netherlands There are currently 401 railway stations in the Netherlands including four which are used only during special events and one which serves the Railway Museum (Netherlands), National Railway Museum only. NS Stations is the body which manages and own ...
*
Trains in the Netherlands The following are current and former trains in the Netherlands. In use Diesel locomotives * NS Class 600, 600 Class: Traditional shunter used in the Netherlands & UK. They are still used at Crailoo (between Bussum and Hilversum) by Railpro. * V ...
* Transportation in Europe


External links


R-net
a designation for high-order public transport in the Netherlands
List of public transport companies in the Netherlands

Map of public transport concession areas in the Netherlands


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Public Transport In The Netherlands *