Bicycle parking

43% of rail passengers cycle to the station. They are able to use supervised bicycle storage facilities for around 130,000 bicycles, unsupervised facilities for more than 320,000 bicycles and more than 13,000 bicycle lockers at stations. ProRail and NS Stations are working with partners to develop bicycle storage facilities where rail passengers can easily and conveniently store their bikes. Our offering includes the first 24 hours’ storage free (in 20 storage facilities), digital pointers to the free storage slots, the option of paying with public transport smartcards, and a uniform design. In 2017, NS Stations and ProRail agreed with various municipalities to provide these services at the bicycle storage facilities at stations. We also opened new bicycle storage facilities in 2017 at Utrecht Centraal, Amsterdam Centraal and Delft.

Self-service bicycle storage facilities

At Bilthoven and Heerenveen stations, NS Stations ran a trial with self-service storage facility. Elements of this are an open, spacious entrance, access using your bank card or public transport smartcard and the availability of public transport bicycles (OV-fiets). This trial resulted in higher customer satisfaction (77% gave a score of 8 out of 10 or higher, as opposed to 46% for other storage options) and more effective use of the storage facilities. NS and ProRail are going to invest €8 million to convert the 45 to 50 automated storage facilities to this new concept.

Fiets & Service

In 2017 we opened Fiets & Service centres at Groningen, Den Haag Centraal (temporary F&S), Utrecht Centraal, Leeuwarden (temporary F&S), Amsterdam Centraal and Amersfoort (temporary F&S) stations. Fiets & Service is a service format for bicycle repairs, bicycle parts and bicycle accessories. At the end of 2017 there were 22 in total.

OV Fiets

In 2017, private and corporate customers used an OV-fiets for over 3.1 million trips (2016: 2.4 million). In 2017 we recycled 1,000 public transport bicycles and expanded the total number of such bikes by 6,000 to meet growing customer demand. That brings the total number of bicycles to approximately 14,500 (8,500 in 2016). On 1 January 2017 the annual public transport bicycle season ticket was abolished and only the journey price is now charged. In the Journey Planner Xtra, passengers can see in advance whether they can hire a public transport bicycle at a station.

Car parking

7% of rail passengers use the car to get to the station and park there. In 2017, more than 1,000 P+R spaces were added and 1,059 spaces were improved. The number of P+R spaces around stations is now over 44,000 (35,000 in 2016). We have also opened three new parking locations at Zutphen, Den Bosch and Driebergen-Zeist stations. The latter is the first energy-neutral multi-storey car park in the Netherlands.

NS Zonetaxi

The NS Zonetaxi can be used from 137 locations. It takes rail passengers to and from station for fixed fares. In 2017, there were more than 10,000 new subscribers (making a total of 44,000). As in 2016, subscribers took a total of more than 18,000 trips during the last year.