Station development

Stations are a crucial stage in passengers' journeys from door to door. Our efforts are focused on making the journey to and from the station and time spent at the station as pleasant and convenient as possible. Among other things, the diverse range of shops and facilities at our stations cater to passengers' needs. Our goal is to make travel time feel like free time for our customers.

NS Stations operates, develops and manages more than 400 stations in the Netherlands. Cleaning, maintenance and safety are important factors here, as well as the optimal balance of walkways, service and facilities at and around the station. The station has more to offer than just trains.

With the construction of the High Speed Rail Line (HSL), it was necessary to improve the quality of several of the stations along the route. So the national government decided to facilitate the renovation of six stations served by the HSL: Utrecht Centraal, Rotterdam Centraal, Den Haag Centraal, Breda, Arnhem Centraal and Amsterdam-Zuid (future). These projects are collectively known as the New Key Projects (NSP). As these stations are important for the Netherlands as a whole, the national government will invest more than 1 billion euros in these projects.

More travellers, larger stations

The increase in the number of travellers was another reason to heavily invest in new stations in the Netherlands. The larger stations in the Netherlands are no longer able to deal with large numbers of travellers, who want a pleasant and comfortable environment at the station. So a wide selection of services and shops have been provided to meet these needs. Travellers also wish to be able to transfer to other modes of public transportation at the station. In addition to the New Key Projects, the government is investing in the renovation of several other stations in the Netherlands, such as Amsterdam Centraal, Delft, Eindhoven Centraal, Tilburg, Zwolle, Alkmaar and Heerlen. Over the next few years, other stations will undergo renovation work as well, including Groningen, Assen and Ede-Wageningen. ProRail is the organisation that commissions the renovations of the major stations on behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, as well as the municipal or provincial governments. As the owners of the stations, NS Stations and ProRail are closely involved in their redevelopment. NS Stations also invests in the development of a varied selection of shops and facilities at the stations.
If you would like to know more about the stations that are being renovated, visit the NS Stations website. (in Dutch)

For this purpose, NS Stations operates 13 food and non-food varieties of retail company, including AH to go, De Broodzaak, HEMA, Julia’s, Kiosk, Rituals, Smullers and Starbucks. Our range of shops is optimally adapted to the people who are travelling. The shops give the station a feeling of safety and comfort, convenience and certainty in a hectic environment, but also contribute  atmosphere and amusement.

Ten years ago there were almost no market players interested in conducting business at stations. Now there are many small and large market players that have the knowledge, experience and scale required to operate retail businesses at stations. This presents the opportunity to leave a portion of the operation to other parties.

Stations also have space for local tenants, such as florists, catering companies or tenants with their own retail formula, such as Leonidas or Döner Company. This allows NS Stations to provide a varied range of shops that caters to the desires of the passengers.

For more information go to: http://retail.nsstations.nl/ (in Dutch)

NS is the owner of a large number of historic buildings: from station buildings, signal towers and industrial workshops to platform structures and water towers. We do not consider this cultural heritage to be a burden, because they stand in the way of new developments; rather, they are an opportunity to create aesthetically pleasing station areas.

Historic buildings are often important in creating a pleasant atmosphere in their immediate surroundings. We therefore strive to include our cultural heritage in the plans for redevelopment of the station areas. In so doing, the building or structure becomes an icon of the area, and it can serve in a new function for many years to come.