Accessibility

NS wants travel in the Netherlands to be possible, affordable and sustainable – always and for everyone. This includes passengers with a disability. An accessible train journey is a basic passenger need. Therefore, accessibility is now an integral part of our design processes for new trains and we work with stakeholder organisations to further develop accessibility products and services. Since 2023, we have offered travel assistance for passengers with a disability at all stations made accessible by ProRail with a lift or ramp, where NS trains stop and where conditions on the platform allow. This covers 98% of the stations served by our trains. Travel assistance is available to passengers who need help getting on or off the train, changing trains or navigating through the station. We also made travel information more comprehensible in 2023: passengers who have difficulties processing information will find a special button on ns.nl for information in plain language.

As in 2022, broken lifts sometimes caused accessibility issues for passengers with disabilities. ProRail tries to fix breakdowns as quickly as possible. NS Customer Service looks at each situation to see how alternatives can be provided so travellers can still use the train.

All new ICNG trainsets have a sliding step for accessible boarding, wheelchair spaces in the passenger compartment and a wheelchair-accessible toilet. By the end of 2023, 40 of the 45 VIRM 2/3 trainsets had been upgraded and fitted with wheelchair-accessible toilets. By the end of December, all trains had toilets, of which 74% are wheelchair-accessible toilets meeting EU requirements.