Our mission is to make sure passengers feel a connection with NS. Our ambition is to work with partners to let passengers control their door-to-door journeys. This is our contribution to affordable and sustainable mobility in the Netherlands.
Our goal for 2019 is to pass the mid-term review by making passengers, passengers and passengers our top priorities. We aim to deliver a very good sustainable and robust train service and offer a seamless door-to-door journey experience. We will also give passengers the ability to be in control, freedom and respect. To achieve this, in our Spoorslags Beter strategy we are concentrating on three core activities:

1. Better performance on the main rail network, including HSL and the associated international train services. This means better train journeys, greater reliability, cleaner trains and investments in new trains. We are also increasing the frequency of services, which will result in a better timetable for passengers.

2. World-class stations. Without stations, there would be no trains. The stations are an essential link in passengers’ door-to-door journeys and they have a major effect on our customer satisfaction figure. At stations, passengers expect easy connections to all transport modalities, time spent there to be safe and comfortable, a positive experience and a familiar ambience. We are working in close collaboration with ProRail and in consultation with public authorities to arrange that.

3. Contributing to a better door-to-door journey. NS is one of the elements in the passenger’s journey from door to door. That is why we also want to make a contribution to the first and last stages of the journey. We aim to improve the journey experience by introducing new payment methods and even better journey information, whereby convenience takes priority. We align the timetable as much as possible with bus, tram and metro services, offer transport chain services such as the public transport bicycle (OV-fiets) and Zonetaxi and ensure that the stations can be comfortable, multimodal transport hubs for the passengers. We do this together with governmental authorities, other carriers, infrastructure operators and consumer organisations. This puts passengers in control of their journey.

By focusing on these three core activities, we will genuinely be prioritising passengers and we will be giving further substance to our role in society of strengthening sustainable mobility in the Netherlands. In everything we do, one question takes top priority: ‘Will passengers benefit from this?’ That is why NS is investing more than €3 billion in these core activities, for example purchasing new trains, offering better journey information and better Wi-Fi, introducing new payment methods and making further improvements to stations.