NETHERLANDS Railways’ (NS) proposed 2025 timetable includes a major shake-up of the IC network and the introduction of 1600 additional services a week compared with the current timetable.
The 2025 timetable has been submitted for assessment to Locov, a national consultative body, which will make recommendations to the minister of infrastructure.
Development of the current timetable was strongly influenced by the change in travel patterns since the Covid-19 pandemic. NS withdrew many extra services on Fridays and off-peak, in order to cut costs and due to a shortage of staff, which remains an issue for NS.
The 2025 timetable contains many of the changes that NS was planning to introduce in 2023. NS says it also represents the first step in its two-stage programme to develop services under its new Main Line Network (HRN) concession that starts on January 1 2025.
The IC network will undergo major change by further integrating domestic services using the HSL-South high-speed line into the wider NS network, with Amsterdam most affected.
Domestic high-speed IC Direct services will no longer start or terminate in the Dutch capital, but will be extended to Lelystad Centrum and Amersfoort Schothorst, with two trains per hour on both routes.
This has been made possible by the introduction of the new Alstom ICNG fleet, but deliveries are running late, which means that other IC Direct services cannot yet be extended beyond Amsterdam to serve Groningen and Leeuwarden.
In addition, IC Direct trains and Amsterdam – Brussels IC services will no longer call at Amsterdam Central, but at Amsterdam South instead. There will no longer be direct IC services between Amsterdam Central and Schiphol Airport. They will be replaced by Airport Sprinter services between Central, the airport and Hoofddorp eight times an hour.
The extension of IC Direct services has impacted the IC network in the north and east of the Netherlands with no through IC trains operating from Enschede to Amsterdam. IC services will operate from Enschede to Utrecht and The Hague Central or Rotterdam Central.
Higher frequencies
NS will increase the frequency of both IC and stopping Sprinter trains, partially reinstating service removed from existing timetables. It will offer 10-minute The Hague Central – Rotterdam Central – Dordrecht, and Arnhem – Utrecht Central – Amsterdam South – The Hague – Rotterdam Central services. On other routes Sprinter frequencies will increase to four an hour, or the period where a higher train frequency is provided will be extended.
NS will also provide more trains both early in the morning and late at night on both the periphery of the network as well as in the heavily-populated Randstad conurbation of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amsterdam.
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