Travelling without barriers

To keep rail travel attractive, we are investing in forms of transport that complement the train. In this way we contribute to maximum convenience from door to door.

Bicycle parking

Around 39% of rail passengers cycle to the station. We offer supervised parking facilities for 196,400 bicycles, unsupervised facilities for more than 305,000 bicycles and 11,400 bicycle lockers at stations. In collaboration with municipalities and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, ProRail and NS Stations are developing facilities where passengers can park their bikes easily and without hassle. Our offer includes free storage for every first 24-hour period (at 77 parking facilities), digital pointers to free parking spaces, the option of paying with the OV-chipkaart, and a uniform design. In 2021, we opened new bicycle parking facilities at the stations of Gouda (2,000 spaces) and Tilburg Zuid (4,000 spaces).

Roll-out of new check-in and check-out zones

NS has started the roll-out of new check-in and check-out zones at supervised bicycle parking facilities. Of the ten locations scheduled for 2021, Amsterdam Amstel, Amsterdam Zuid (Strawinksylaan) and Tilburg Zuid were realised in that year. The special bicycle tag or the OV-chipkaart allows passengers to check in and check out automatically and park their bicycles faster and with less hassle. Staff at the parking facility have more time to serve passengers. We intend to introduce this system at ten more locations in the country in 2022. The bicycle tags were developed in collaboration with the municipality of Amsterdam, and passengers can also use them in two bicycle parking facilities run by the city.

Fiets & Service

Fiets & Service is a service format for bicycle repairs, parts and accessories. There are 32 Fiets & Service repair points in all, at 28 stations; the same figure as in 2020.

OV-fiets

In 2021, public transport bicycles at the stations of Apeldoorn and Den Bosch were equipped with the new OV-fiets smart lock. The rental period starts the moment the bicycle is unlocked, and ends the moment the user returns the bicycle to the facility and locks it. NS originally intended to equip all OV-fiets distribution points with the new lock in 2021. However, this has now been postponed to 2022 and 2023. The development of a new OV-fiets distribution point for unstaffed rental locations is in full swing. We will launch the European tendering procedure at the beginning of 2022. Since January 2021, NS itself has been in control of the management and maintenance of OV-fiets, operating five OV-fiets workshops.

Car parking

Over 6% of rail passengers travel to the station by car and park there. In 2021, we expanded or improved the P+R locations at 6 stations. In addition, we implemented an easy-access numberplate recognition system at 42 regulated P+R locations. The other 12 regulated locations will be converted in 2022, one year later than scheduled. We installed counter cameras at 7 free parking locations in order to be able to inform passengers about the number of available spaces.

NS Zonetaxi

NS Zonetaxi services were available for passengers at a total of 329 stations in 2021. However, NS Zonetaxi was terminated at the end of 2021. We are now developing a new taxi service instead. Unlike NS Zonetaxi, the new taxi service will be available at every station and passengers will be charged per kilometre (instead of paying a rate per zone).