Our performance in a wider context

Reputation

NS commissions the RepTrak Company (www.reptrak.com) to gauge its reputation. The RepTrak-score for 2022 was 62.9 (2021: 68.0). which is below our target score of 64.0 for reputation. All underlying scores were lower compared with those for 2021, with the score for leadership showing the sharpest drop. This can be attributed to reports in connection with the six-monthly figures, the strikes, the staff shortages resulting in the reduction of our timetable, and overcrowding in our trains.

Benchmarking against other carriers

As agreed in the main rail network franchise, we conduct a benchmark study every three years in order to compare our own and ProRail's performance with that of other European rail transport providers. The COVID-19 crisis had a significant impact on our performance and on the availability of data. For that reason, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, NS and ProRail agreed to shift the benchmark study from 2021 to 2022 and report on the results in 2023. In this way, the study will provide us with a picture of performance levels before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, NS conducted the benchmark study with the same carriers as in 2019: DSB (Denmark), Greater Anglia (United Kingdom), NMBS (Belgium), SBB (Switzerland) and West Midlands Trains (United Kingdom). The focus of the study was on the railway system in general (carrier and infrastructure) and on the response to COVID-19 impacts, punctuality issues and train cancellations in particular. We use the benchmark study results as input for further performance improvement plans.

Transparency

NS is transparent about its performance. Every month, it reports via www.ns.nl (in Dutch) on the latest scores for the KPIs that have been set for the main rail network franchise, with detailed supporting evidence. NS won the Financieel Dagblad's Sijthoff Prize for best annual report in the category of unlisted companies.