2022 and beyond

While in previous years we had to make every conceivable effort to facilitate the growth in passenger volumes, since 2020 the challenge has shifted to winning passengers back, recovering passenger volumes and rebuilding our results and our financial position. Affordable train fares, high-quality operational performance and satisfied customers remain central to everything we do.
NS wants to be able to continue providing world-class mobility services now and during the subsequent franchise period from 2025: always accessible, always sustainable and always affordable. To that end, we will continue innovating and investing in new trains, more convenient payment options, propositions to match evolving customer needs and passenger behaviours, and world-class stations that serve as mobility hubs. So we will continue our investments to make these ambitions come true, despite the losses that NS will incur over the years ahead as a result of the downward adjustment of passenger forecasts. The investments will however be adapted to the changed circumstances and outlook. As a result, we will continue to devote a great deal of attention to scaling down our organisation in order to adapt our costs, products and services to this new reality. To this end, we will implement a savings programme worth €1.4 billion in the period up to and including 2024. Even after COVID-19 has been overcome, changes in travel behaviour will persist and it will take years before passenger numbers have fully recovered. Our important social function is a major consideration in how we design and provide services for passengers. In order to secure this function in the years ahead, we need financial agreements to be able to continue providing passenger services at the current level.