• * Value has been amended as a result of technical changes that have been implemented in the performance indicators

NS wants passengers to be confident that they will arrive at their destination at the scheduled time. We use the ‘punctuality for passengers’ performance indicator to measure the punctuality in a way that also looks at the connecting trains. Punctuality for passengers (to 5 minutes) for the main rail network was 91.6% in 2017 (90.6% in 2016). The increase is in part due to the new timetable, which we are getting ever better at implementing and which is more reliable. This allowed us to deploy trains more according to plan. In the first two months of the year, punctuality for passengers was still lagging behind due to teething problems in the new timetable, which is very different to the old one. We solved most of these problems by February. For example, we changed connections that were correct on paper but were not feasible in practice. Despite all that, we had a large power failure in Amsterdam in January and disruptive winter weather that affected train traffic in December. In comparison to the previous year, our passengers experienced less inconvenience from work on the track in 2017.

High-frequency Rail Transport Programme

Punctuality is one of the prerequisites for running trains at a higher frequency. NS and ProRail held a trial from September to December in which passengers between Amsterdam, Utrecht,
’s-Hertogenbosch and Eindhoven could catch an Intercity train every ten minutes. The trials were key preparations for the new timetable that came into effect in December. Passengers on this route can now choose from six Intercity trains an hour. This has increased the capacity and resulted in less crowded trains. The trial led to overwhelmingly positive reactions among passengers and employees of NS and ProRail. We will be monitoring performance on the route carefully in 2018 to pick up points for improvement quickly. NS and ProRail did a study together into potential further corridors where an increase in the frequency of Intercity trains per hour is desirable. The Schiphol-Utrecht-Nijmegen and Breda-Eindhoven corridors were shown to be the corridors that were most urgent.