Nederlandse Spoorwegen

The time has come to talk about Dutch trains. The Dutch train system, the Nederlandse Spoorwegen, abbreviated everywhere as NS, as are the stations. Most buses in my area run between NS stations and are simply labelled Hilversum NS or Naarden-Bussum NS.

The first thing to know is that the Netherlands train system doesn't change much, that most of it is a century old, and that there have been few if any truly new passenger lines laid down since the 1940s (except of course to Flevoland, an island which didn't exist until more recently).

The second thing to know is that these lines are BUSY. These two trains are passing just north of the Naarden-Bussum station, my home station, by no means a central station.
 

The signals are modest, and the signal sounds are gentle, modulated, even pleasant. But the trains do scream by.
 

The Naarden-Bussum station was built in the 1930s, which means the construction is in that blocky brick style that seems brutal now. Trains were high-tech then, and the station master was important in locally, but of course now it is all centrally controlled and computerized. Still, the tilework remains.
 

The waiting rooms were as segregated as the train cars. With more frequent trains, the waits are shorter now, so there's no longer much of a waiting room--this one is now a koffieshop, spelled in Dutch, not to be confused with "coffeeshop", spelled in English, which in the Netherlands means a place to smoke pot), something to know before you suggest coffee to, oh, say, your visiting parents or your boss. Again, the tilework remains.
 

And third class waiting room. So, guess which your cheapskate tour guide pays for? Trick question!!!--there's no more third class! The answer: second class. They don't allow your bike in first class...no matter how civilzed it is. [PeeWee Herman laugh]
 

I took this random picture in the station, and only later noticed the reflections. Most pictures I've taken that include any glass have the same reflections, and these reflections speak a real truth about the Netherlands: whenever you're outside, you are within sight of a hundred windows. Windows are simply everywhere. The villages have eyes. Not a place for claustrophobics.
 

In my time here, I have bicycled more than I've driven a car, and I've ridden trains more distance than I've bicycled. Try that in America.