The train experience

Train Experience Monitor

NS uses the Train Experience Monitor every year to measure the scores that 24,000 passengers give for the quality of the trains and the journey. This instrument for quantification and steering helps us improve our services to our passengers. The passengers’ assessment of the Intercity trains remained stable compared to a year ago. In 2015, 82% of our passengers gave a score of 7 out of 10 or higher for the Intercity; this was 83% in 2016. The assessment of the Sprinter trains saw a rise: from 78% in 2015 to 81% in 2016.

Train Experience Monitor

Train

Train journey

Sprinter

81% (2015: 78%)

82% (2015: 81%)

Intercity

83% (2015: 82%)

85% (2015: 83%)

Installing environmentally friendly toilets in Sprinter trains

Installing the toilets in Sprinter trains will let us meet the requirements of franchise agreements for 2015-2024 and respond to passengers’ complaints about the absence of toilets in the type SLT Sprinter trains. Each SLT train is getting one environmentally friendly toilet with wheelchair access. The design of the toilet and the carriage in which the toilet will be placed was developed in 2016. When the toilets are installed, the trains will also be getting a retractable step that helps wheelchair users or passengers with baggage get on and off the train more easily. The first trains will be converted by 2018. All SLT trains will have a toilet and retractable step by 2021.

Clean trains

NS wants its passengers to travel in clean trains via clean stations. That is why we clean the trains and stations daily. Last year, 58% of passengers gave the cleanliness of trains a score of 7 out of 10 or higher. That is an increase compared to 2015 (51.1%). This increase is partly the result of the new train washing systems in Leidschendam and The Hague. Moreover, we clean trains on the routes with the poorest performance figures while they are running (Care on Track). Other initiatives that improved satisfaction are extra cleaning of night-time services, better logistical planning for rolling stock cleaning before service, and more effective deployment of cleaning staff. Additionally, we aim to start the scheduled timetable every morning with the right trains in the right places at the right time – and with the right level of quality. We are setting up an improvement project for this, which will run for another year. Intensive cooperation with the cleaning parties makes result-oriented cleaning possible.