Rail Travel in the Netherlands

Below is a detailed map of the railways of the Netherlands. You can zoom in by using the +/- buttons or by using the wheel on your mouse whilst hovering over the map.

The map has been extracted from the Railway Map of Europe with kind permission of the publishers.
You can purchase copies of the full map, as well as rail timetables, from The European Railway Timetable website

NETHERLANDS

The rail network in most of the country is dense and mainly electrified and run by state-owned NS (see link below) . It includes the Flevolijn on reclaimed land which in living memory was a vast lake (the Ijsselmeer) and high speed lines between the Belgian border and the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Trains on all the network are very frequent.

Trains on certain non-electrified regional lines – usually in very rural areas – are operated under contract by private companies, but integrated in the national system.

Ticket offices exist only at the stations in larger towns and cities where, increasingly, they sell both train and local urban transport tickets.

Most Dutch people use a stored value plastic “chip card” known as an “OV – chipkaart “with which they check in and out at the start and finish of their journey. You can obtain tickets for individual journeys at ticket vending machines, as well as a range of zonal tickets which can also cover local bus, tram or metro (or trolleybus in Arnhem). Most Dutch stations have barriers. Passengers travelling without tickets will be fined. Day tickets are available for unlimited travel across the whole rail network. The Holland Travel Ticket gives unlimited travel across on all domestic trains, trams, buses and the metros in Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Schiphol Airport has a 6-platform through station under the terminal and is easily accessible by train from most of the country.

BICYCLES These can be taken on most trains at anytime in July and August, at week-ends and outside peak hours on Monday to Friday for the rest of the year. There is a fixed daily supplement (currently 7.50 Euros).

MOBILITY ASSISTANCE: Travel assistance can be booked up to 1 hour before departure time from 125 stations, by phone or on line.

TG October 2021