Nederlandse Spoorwegen

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈneːdərlɑntsə ˈspoːrʋeːɣə(n)]) (English: Dutch Railways) or NS is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. NS provides rail services on the Dutch main rail network (hoofdrailnet). The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight services, formerly operated by NS Cargo, merged with the DB Schenker group in 2000.

NS runs 4,800 scheduled domestic trains a day, serving 1.1 million passengers. In addition, NS provides international rail services from the Netherlands to other European destinations and carries out concessions on a number of foreign rail markets through its subsidiary Abellio.

History

Founding

The NS was founded in 1938 when the two largest Dutch railway companies, the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HSM) and the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen (SS), formally merged. These two companies, however, had been intensively cooperating as early as 1917. There were both economic and ideological reasons for the cooperation.