Usually, when travelling on an Intercity direct train, you have to pay an extra supplement of 2,40 euros to board. This, however, is changing for travellers using the train between Schiphol and Rotterdam.

NS Intercity direct

The Intercity direct transports passengers from Amsterdam Central station to Schiphol Airport, and further onward to Rotterdam Central station and Breda.

Despite being a high-speed train (HST), the Intercity direct has failed to be on time so often in the first half of 2017 that the State Secretary Sharon Dijksma is threatening NS and ProRail with fines.

At the beginning of this year, Dijksma issued NS and ProRail with collective fines of 2,3 million euros for their poor performance in 2016.

Passengers to profit from NS and ProRail fines

The state secretary has decided to allow passengers to temporarily profit from the sanctions given to NS and ProRail.

Those travelling between Schiphol and Rotterdam on the Intercity direct in off-peak hours will no longer have to pay for a supplement to travel on this service. Passengers travelling during peak-hours however, still have to pay for a train supplement before they can board the high-speed train.

The off-peak supplement exemption will be put into place this year.

Avoiding new fines

In order to prevent extra fines this year, NS and ProRail must do everything they can to improve their service on the high-speed rail line. Possible penalties will be based on the performance of both companies over the whole of 2017.

In addition to the efforts of NS and ProRail, Dijksma is reserving 60 million euros for the improvement of the high-speed train infrastructure.