Nederlandse Spoorwegen PHOTOS

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Wondering what Nederlandse Spoorwegen means?  You clicked on the right post!  Nederlandse Spoorwegen in English is Dutch Railways, in other words, the Netherlands' national railway system.
Over one million people ride Nederlandse Spoorwegen each day, making it the busiest railroad in Europe and the third busiest in the world. Nearly every city in the Netherlands has train service, with most lines operating twice an hour and up to four times an hour on services connecting Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven.  The network also includes a station at Schiphol Airport, which is the airport that serves Amsterdam.  There are also ICE services from Germany (I saw one go by while railfanning the Metro but was not by any means ready for a photo), Thalys services to Brussels and Paris (to be saved for another round of teasers), and night trains to other international destinations.  A new high speed line, HSL-Zuid, is under construction between Amsterdam, Schiphol, Rotterdam, Breda, and Antwerp.  From Antwerp, it will continue as the HSL 4 line to Brussels, and then on the existing HSL 1 and LGV Nord lines to Paris.

Iconic Dutch double decker EMU at Amsterdam Centraal:


Class 2900 "Sprinter" EMU at Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA:


Class 1700 electric locomotive at Den Haag Hollands Spoor:


Class 7800 EMU at Amsterdam Centraal:


Class 2000 EMU at Utrecht-Maliebaan (Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum/Dutch Railway Museum):


Class 2900 "Sprinter" EMU at Amsterdam Centraal:


More photos from The Netherlands on my website can be found at http://www.orenstransitpage.com/otpnetherlandspics/netherlandshome.htm. 

Another round of teasers from my latest website update to come soon!

[Tristan]

Hopefully the new administration will embrace rail as a viable, critical mode of transportation and at some point in our lifetimes, we'll see Amtrak brought to the same level as the rest of the world class rail systems.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Hopefully the new administration will embrace rail as a viable, critical mode of transportation and at some point in our lifetimes, we'll see Amtrak brought to the same level as the rest of the world class rail systems.

Hopefully.  The Dutch railways were top notch (aside from my losing time because they had two trains going towards the Hague boarding on the same platform in Amsterdam, one was non stop, the other was a fast train leaving 3 minutes later and I got on the fast train instead of the super fast train due to poor signage and no announcements).  Aside from a few other exceptions, I had good experiences on nearly all the European trains I've been on during my various trips there.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Since I wrote that reply to Tristan late at night, I've had more time to think.  While I stand by my earlier post, I think it is also important to consider the geography differences between here and Europe.  Train travel usually isn't feasible if the trip is going to take more than 3-4 hours generally, or if it isn't an overnight trip that departs after 7 PM and arrives by 9 AM the next morning.  That said, the US still has a long way to go, and there is no reason why we can't have high speed corridors in the areas where they have the potential to work well.