The Dutch Railways will reduce the number of ticket service counters at stations in the Netherlands from 36 to 15 units. Sixteen years ago, in 2004, 63 percent of all train tickets were bought at a ticket service counter. In 2019, only 12 percent of train tickets were sold at a ticket service counter, which is a significant decrease.

According to Tjalling Smit, Board of Directors of NS, purchasing behavior is in line with a social trend. “The Netherlands is digitizing at a rapid pace. ATMs are disappearing from the streets, self-scan checkouts are taking off in the supermarket and you can arrange more and more government affairs online. We too see this development among our travelers ”. With this change, NS wants to deploy personnel and resources more efficiently. “We have to consider how we use our colleagues to best serve travelers. However, on average, there is no traveler at the desk for half the time that we can assist. At some counters we only sell one subscription every ten days ”.

More and more train travelers are buying their train ticket in the NS app or online NS.nl. In 2019 this was about 30 percent, in 2009 it was nil. Self-service, or remote assistance by telephone or service kiosk, will soon be available at 253 stations. The Samenservice, either that service employees walk around the station or offer remote assistance by telephone or service column, goes from 5 stations to 10 stations. The NS does not yet know exactly what impact this will have on jobs at the NS.

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