Holland train map

Railways in the Netherlands

There are 404, including five railway stations which are only served during events, one of those only to facilitate pilgrimage to a nearby site and another one only to facilitate the Railway Museum.

NS Stations is managing 381 stations.

Categories[edit]

This image shows the standard style of the station nameplate, white on blue, with a white square in the upper-left corner.

Stations are divided into two categories based upon the service they receive. These are, in order of decreasing importance:

Intercity stations, where usually all trains (except, in some cases, international services) call.
The remaining stations, where only local trains (Sprinters) call.

There are exceptions to this categorization. Some local trains – despite being called stoptreinen – do not stop at all stations: two examples are the services from Groningen to Roodeschool and from Tiel to Arnhem.

ProRail classify stations into 5 categories based upon the facilities available. The categories are (in English): Cathedral, Mega, Plus, Basic and Stop.

Largest stations[edit]

In this order, these are the ten largest Dutch railway stations by number of passengers a day:

Spelling conventions[edit]

Stations are generally named after the town they serve. In case a town is served by multiple stations, additional names are given to specify the station's position such as:

Centraal (abbreviated "CS"): "Central" - most important station with more than 40000 daily passengers.
Centrum: "Center" - most important station with less than 40000 daily passengers and/or a centrally located station.
Zuid: "South"
Noord: "North"
Oost: "East"
West: "West"

Currently only five stations are designated Centraal: Utrecht Centraal, Amsterdam Centraal, Rotterdam Centraal, Leiden Centraal and Den Haag Centraal (Arnhem and Breda reconstruction projects mistakenly used "Centraal" too because of the high-speed rail connections to Germany and Belgium).

[edit]

Boxtel (has been replaced)

Also in Bloemendaal

Also in Bussum

Delft (old defunct station)

Also in Den Haag

Geleen

Hoek van Holland

Also in Kerkrade

Koog aan de Zaan

Partially in Leiden (only the abandoned ticket building)

Classic design station (type NFLS) in Marrum. No longer in use

Bussum

Bloemendaal

Santpoort

Also in Voorschoten:

Termini[edit]

The stations below all have revenue passenger tracks running in only one direction. Those marked with a * do have tracks in both direction but one direction is only used for freight and/or as a tourist line, except for Groningen and Enschede who have passenger service in both directions but no through services. See also Train station#Terminus.

Recent stations[edit]

New stations from 2004:

New stations from 2005:

New stations from 2006:

Closing stations from 2006: Berkel en Rodenrijs, Rotterdam Bergweg, Zoetermeer Buytenweg, Zoetermeer Centrum West, Zoetermeer de Leyens, Zoetermeer Delftsewallen, Zoetermeer Driemanspolder, Zoetermeer Dorp, Rotterdam Hofplein, Rotterdam Kleiweg, Leidschendam-Voorburg, Leidschenveen, Zoetermeer Leidsewallen, Zoetermeer Meerzicht, Nootdorp, Zoetermeer Palenstein, Pijnacker, Zoetermeer Seghwaert, Zoetermeer Stadhuis, Zoetermeer Voorweg, Voorburg 't Loo, Rotterdam Wilgenplas. These stations were located on the lines transferred from the Dutch Railways to the light rail network of RandstadRail. Some of these were closed permanently, others have been converted for light rail use.

New stations from 2007:

New station from 2008:

New stations from 2009:

New stations from 2010:

New stations from 2011:

New stations from 2012:

New stations from 2013:

New station from 2014:

Future stations[edit]

Future station after 2013:

Platforms and tracks[edit]

Not the platforms, but the tracks are numbered. In Dutch communication, NS refers to "spoor 1" ("track 1"), etc. while in English communication, NS refers to "platform 1" where "track 1" is meant (hence all island platforms have two numbers). Tracks without platform access, used for through traffic, also have a number. This number is not indicated, but it shows indirectly by the fact that in the numbering of the accessible tracks a number is skipped. Track numbers are usually increasing in the direction away from the center of the city and hence away from the main entrance(s) of the station.

A track along a long platform may have an "a" and a "b"-side, and sometimes three sections "a", "b" and "c".

At many stations, above platforms and/or at their access points, there are dynamic displays (electronic displays) of the destination and departure time of the next train (see railway platform signs).

Machines and counters for train tickets[edit]

For checking in and out with an OV-chipkaart card readers are at station entrances, halls and/or platforms. It can be recharged (increasing the credit by paying an amount) at ticket machines. The anonymous variety of the card can also be purchased here. For some minor rail operators all this does not apply yet.

Paper tickets are available from the same ticket machines; at the counter (if available) a supplement of € 0.50 per ticket (with a maximum of €1 per occasion) has to be paid. In both cases one can choose a dated or undated ticket; the latter can be useful if one has not decided yet about the travel date. If the ticket is not dated it requires a stamp from a stamp machine on the travel date.

NS Stations[edit]

NS Stations (Dutch pronunciation: ) is a Dutch company that manages and exploits over 400 railway stations in the Netherlands.

Safety and comfort[edit]

Passenger comfort sometimes suffers from (homeless) beggars or pickpockets, especially in large cities. Measures taken to remedy this include installation of CCTV, locking waiting rooms in the evening, and sometimes removal of benches from station halls. Also, a valid train ticket is required to access platforms. Passengers with large luggage should note that no luggage trolleys are provided (except at the station of Schiphol airport), although platforms are accessible by elevator.

Station abbreviations[edit]

The official abbreviations of names of stations are used internally by the NS, but also on handwritten tickets; they can also conveniently be used when entering a station in the NS planner on (but not on ) and are needed in some URLs, see below. In a station it can be found in the lower right corner of the yellow departure schedules. In most URLs (see below) they have to be written in lowercase, in some a capital is optional. On the departure schedules they are written in lowercase. In other cases the abbreviations are written with a capital letter. For a list sorted by abbreviation see nl:Lijst van afkortingen van Nederlandse spoorwegstations.

Stations also have a four-digit code that is used on the keypad of older ticket machines to specify a destination.