Nederlandse Spoorwegen Reviews 

NS sucks!!!! It’s unbelievable how often they are delayed and you miss connecting trains! Uncountable times!!!

Terrible company, a borderline scam for the money. Never on time, always delayed or cancelled. Complete bullshit and a humiliation of the fee customers pay. If I met a geenie and had one wish, I’d wish for NS to go bankrupt! :)

Fined 70 euro for travelling with my wife’s ns card because I was having ann issue with my own. Our memberships are the same so I wasn’t trying to ‘score’. My wife’s card was also confiscated and blocked. The NS response: we can to anything to reduce the fine. You should travel with the right card. I’ll just drive from now on. It was a 10 min train ride.

NS means no service, one star is too much for them, they should be gratitude coz here's no grade lower than that.

Poor customer service.
First of all, I am supposed to receive emails from the regarding invoices or anything of that matter which did NOT happen! I know this because I called them as I received multiple envelopes from them on my mail box. Problem is if you wish to travel and you are not home you never know if you need to pay something or what are you paying for. Also, I have tried to call them multiple times about rearranging an issue with the invoices as I was away for vacation. They send me a link in one of their emails which I never received until later as an attachment and already expired so USELESS. I said I wish to have a new link that works so I could pay my invoices, and they kept saying to me “no it is not possible”. I find it weird but decided to keep pushing for solutions. The man talking to me was getting frustrated and clearly talking about you so what's out for that too, trying to say that they cannot do anything and will have to use the old link or nothing. Okay again very weird from them, so I asked if he can't do anything more for me then to connect me with someone who CAN help... he simply said straight up and I quote “No I won't”. Thanks for the help of doing nothing and refusing to help when I Becky asked many times if I could speak to anyone else who has more knowledge about this topic and possible solutions. No compassion no understanding no sign of moving forward and just keep getting rejected of proper help in the situation. At the 26th min mark of the phone call they simply hung up on me. Bravo for a great service! From now on just hung up on your customers if you are an incompetent piece of sh.. I had to call many more times immediately again to check with other colleagues any other solutions to which I ended up using AI to actually find a solution. Maybe NS will do better if they get rid of their current employees and use that extra budget for AI or specialist for these kind of situations instead of random people who have 0 patience and simply do not care to offer any help. I mean if they were on my position they would want help and would feel extremely annoyed, disrespected and upset from this type of customer service. Do some self reflecting or check your damn mirror in the morning before you go to work maybe you’ll see we are all humans instead of hiding behind a phone and thinking oh yeah i can just give a sh… for this person because i lack skills to cope with difficult situations. Like if you are not fit out for it, and you are miserable with life because you get such a low salary and can’t survive cause you didn’t try harder earlier enough do not take it out on your customers!

Disregarding all the cancellations and the delays, I cannot even connect to the internet in their trains. Here I am, writing with my cellular network, bruhhh. In my opinion, the only reason this company survives is because it has absolute monopoly over transportation. I won’t even get into the unreasonable prices for traveling.

Extremely poor service and discrimination at Amsterdam Centraal

On 5 January 2026, all train connections to Bremen from Amsterdam Centraal were completely cancelled from 2:00 p.m. onwards. I am 100% severely disabled, which I showed with my disability card.

The service at the NS information desk was appalling:
• One staff member made a joke, suggesting I could use a bicycle as a replacement, which was humiliating and caused me emotional distress.
• Another staff member refused to read or answer my questions, even though I had translated them using Google Translate. Despite showing my disability card, she gave no assistance and made irrelevant remarks about Trump.
• We had to wait in long queues and sit on the cold floor for hours, with no clear instructions about alternative travel or hotel accommodation. Only later did another staff member give limited help using Google Translate.

We eventually had to arrange a hotel ourselves and submitted a reimbursement request online. We arrived in Bremen 21 hours late and further disruptions occurred the next day.

I felt discriminated against due to my disability, lack of Dutch/English language skills, and nationality. The NS failed to provide adequate, accessible, and respectful support in a serious emergency situation.

Not normally expensive for nothing. With a little bit of snowing, everything stops! No trains, no busses, nothing. Very greedy company.

The train from Alkmaar to Amsterdam is so unbelievably dirty and nasty. This is not very hygienic, literally didn’t know where to sit, from the amount of trash on the chairs and on the ground, and it had been like this for a couple of weeks.

An extremely negative experience. The train carriages are in a terrible, dirty condition. I am required to pay around €300 per month for a subscription just to be consistently late for work and to become a victim of evening train cancellations.

Trains are regularly delayed by 10–20 minutes, and this is already treated as the norm. Sometimes I work evening shifts and return home at 11:00 PM. However, one evening you may end up spending the night at the station because all trains after 10:30 PM can be cancelled, with no alternative transport provided.

On one of those evenings, I had to get home by taxi, which NS refused to reimburse. On top of that, €12 was charged from my travel card for the two hours I spent at the station waiting for a train or alternative transport. Unfortunately, I have no alternative way to get to work, so I am forced to use their services.

Half of the time trains either delayed or cancelled, so warm in the trains that it’s impossible to be inside and in the summer also so hot, air conditioners don’t really work. Buses in Utrecht are almost never on time and the schedule is rarely updated. Since 14th December there is new schedule and new busses but the service became even worse…

And last but not least, it’s so expensive and all the subscriptions don’t worth it

Again, lack of communication with travelers. Train that are supposed to run that doesn't; dirty trains; fare Dodgers so far goes unpunished; busy trains where physically we're stuck like sardines; the "delay" refund is a scam. And now they're even talking about price increase for ticket. And don't forget about the mafia of the monopoly. Let other companies run trains, for sure they'll perform better then ns.

Terrible. I called once to ask something about a ticket a wanted to cancel they gave me false answers and then I had to pay another ticket for no reason

So bad…
terrible service...trains are always cancelled, it's been impossible to get to work for 2 months now

One of the worst in Europe based on own experience and amonng worst 10 in eourpe based on surveys, yet it is also the most expensive in Europe. Trains are plagued by constant delays and frequent cancellations and carriages are often overcrowded to the point of being unsafe, with passengers squeezed in like sardines. The environment is dirty and smelly, with litter, broken facilities, and poor maintenance adding to the discomfort. For the high prices charged, the service quality is shockingly low, so for me NS is one of the most disappointing rail operators in Europe.

On 2 Dec, 10:25, from Castricum to Amsterdam, I boarded the train after the bus, but there were no gates to scan my ticket that’s why I forgot scan from phone . I was ready to pay, yet a female NS inspector with black hair shouted at me and humiliated me publicly. This caused severe stress and worsened my health. Staff need to act professionally and respectfully.

Litterally have to take the next train almost every day because the train is full. No more people fit in! On my way to work that's not a problem, but outages on my way home are devastating. "Krantje en een croissantje"? Sorry, those don't fit in the train anymore. Apart from that, have to keep picking up people who have stranded on a station somewhere because their train is not running.

Horrible carrier. Always, literally always late. If you have a connecting flight and only 3-5 minutes to change to another form of transport, you're guaranteed to be late, because NS doesn't give a damn about you, your time, or their own schedule. And the worst part is, you'll likely only find out about a delay 2-3 minutes before departure, leaving you with no time to find another route. Because they don't give a damn. Oh, and let's not forget their constant "reasons" for delays: cold winter weather, heavy rains, and so on. People use NS only because there are no other alternatives. And, of course, they won't do anything about it, because excuses are the only thing NS always does reliably.

There is always an issue with NS! It is spectacular to always have issues, give updates too late with no solution given… very bad an overall not an amazing experience with NS

The worst rail operator in Europe