Royal Palace, Dam Square, Amsterdam May 30, 2016
The Netherlands has a very extensive and dense transit network. The country has two subway systems (Rotterdam and Amsterdam), three tram systems (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague), and a national railway network that connects nearly every town in the country to the point long distance bus services are quite limited; most intercity travel is by train. Many cities also have intracity bus services as well.
The national railway, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), is one of the busiest in the world. It carries 438 million people each year. Most lines have hourly service at a minimum, and the busiest lines connecting Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven have as many as eight or ten trains an hour.
The Netherlands has a single fare system for the entire country, as of November 3, 2011 the “OV-chipkaart” is valid on all of the country’s buses, subway, and tram lines. Starting in 2014, it is also valid for paying NS rail fares. Prior to the gradual introduction of OV-chipkaart, “strippenkaart” were used nationwide in a similar system.
