NS can promote safety within society by offering safe transport and a safe environment for passengers and staff. At NS, we are working on occupational safety, personal safety and safe travel. In terms of the occupational safety of our staff, NS is working on preventing physical or mental harm to our employees, for instance as a result of unsafe working conditions, which can mean they are unable to work (or not able to work full-time) or may need care.

Safety - personal and at work

The social costs for safety at work have remained roughly constant for the last three years.NS took further steps in 2017 to reduce unsafe working conditions and encourage reporting of unsafe situations, for instance through sound risk assessment and evaluation reports (RAEs) and by encouraging staff to report unsafe situations.

As regards personal safety, NS has paid particular attention since 2015 to preventing aggression against staff and passengers. Customer satisfaction with personal safety has been improved, while the number of reports has decreased. Unfortunately, there were two cases of serious injuries in 2017, which did not occur in 2016. As a result, the social impact of personal safety decreased to €1.8 million in 2017 compared with €1.2 million last year.

To provide safe travel, NS is working with its partners on preventing collisions and derailments or unsafe situations at the stations. That meant that the social costs came to €1 million in 2017, as opposed to €6 million in 2016. To further improve safe travel, we are continuing to focus on safety instructions and open communication with staff about improvements.

The number of traffic accidents in journeys prior and subsequent to the train journey and their impact is many times greater, at approximately €110 million (€106 million in 2016). Travelling by train is relatively safe compared to transport by car. The positive impact resulting from accidents that are avoided because of people actively choosing the train was only calculated for the ‘elective passengers’. The social benefits of safe transport by train were approximately €611 million in 2017 (€597 million in 2016, after recalculation). 

Safe journeys

Safe journeys by car