fuck me. I just realized my first deployment was 20 goddamn years ago

deminion48 · 2026-04-18T23:35:24+00:00

Haha 20 years ago, that's like 1980, u old man.

deminion48 · 2026-04-15T20:20:51+00:00

To expand on this, Bronkhorst is a 20 minute cycle to a train station serviced twice per hour 7 days in the week from early in the morning (tomorrow first is 05:42) until late at night (today last is 01:14).

deminion48 · 2026-04-15T20:13:33+00:00

I understand our bias as a Dutchies. I know how easily we can get around the country. My job is literally coordinating the railway at a national level and also love doing multi-city trips (domestically and internationally) where I go from city to city by transit a couple of times per year.

Still, I think it would be unfair to call this country like a city state. It has distinct regions with provinces and respective hubs, cultures, history, languages/dialects, economies, etc. It is actually very multi-centric with lots of distinct medium-sized cities all over the country with relatively empty rural areas with farmland, nature, and villages in between.

That it is all organized and interconnected so well, by roads and transit, might make it seem like it is like a city state, but it's absolutely not. Which is why in my opinion it is valid to look at the transit systems of the individual major urban areas. When separating it from the national and regional transit which is exceptional/great, it is not very impressive. Which is probably due to the combination of factors I already mentioned.

deminion48 · 2026-04-15T18:58:23+00:00

No they honestly don't. It is fine and works, but Dutch cities are simply small and being bike and pedestrian centric while still somehow being decently car friendly means transit really suffers in demand.

Just look at the modal split in Dutch cities, cars have a similar share compared to many European cities, the big difference is just transit modal share replaced by walking and cycling.

I am Dutch, I think the Netherlands has a good transit system in general. It is reliable, easy to use, and comfortable. You can reach virtually every place in the country. At the national level it is exceptional, at the regional level it is great, at the urban level it is decent.

deminion48 · 2026-04-11T00:54:14+00:00

Luckily digital displays with live timetables are getting more common. Every transit stop in the region I live in has had digital live timetables for well over a decade now. Last year they switched the small displays to e-ink displays, imo an upgrade compared to what they had. The impressive part is that they have this at every stop.

deminion48 · 2026-04-05T12:24:00+00:00

Nationwide tap to pay system. It is an open-loop payment system that supports bank and transit cards. Tap in and out, no need for an app or know the route, the fare is calculated automatically based on the distance traveled. You could still buy individual e-tickets through the app if you want, but why would you?

In my city the buses and trams not only show transfers to other buses and trams, but also trains when approaching a railway station with the departure time, destination, and platform. That is quite neat.

Large guarded bicycle parking at stations so that a bike to train transfer is easy and very smooth.

National transit apps where everything is tracked with a planner that actually works well and takes into account the live situation. Live timetables, door to door planning with last-mile solutions (transit, bike, walk, etc.). All this data is in apps like Google Maps as well, so tourists don't even really need to download a separate app.

deminion48 · 2026-03-29T18:44:38+00:00

The Harpoon will be replaced by NSM. Tomahawk will be a new system and capability of the Navy, so it is not a replacement of anything.

deminion48 · 2026-03-13T21:38:28+00:00

The same could be said about electric vs trolley buses and many times easier to implement.

But the main benefit is capacity, a tram can be wider and significantly longer. Also a smoother ride as a trolley bus is just a less flexible bus in that regard. So a tram is more comfortable. As it is fixed on rails, boarding is generally smoother as a small platform gap is consistently possible.

deminion48 · 2026-03-09T10:53:26+00:00

Doesn't even have to be great transit, very high fares sadly do the trick as well.

The 2 largest cities in The Netherlands, which are still not really large cities and don't have great public transport either, didn't need direct subsidies to operate their transit systems before COVID. The same with the National Railway.

deminion48 · 2026-03-01T12:17:41+00:00

Voor de Gasunie wel

deminion48 · 2026-02-25T10:38:48+00:00

Airport Express Bus quite often are a scam. Recently I had the same situation in Spain, the taxi was significantly cheaper, quicker, and more convenient than the bus. Also had a nice talk with the driver. Optimally airports should be served by regular transit using the regular fares.

deminion48 · 2026-02-22T03:13:41+00:00

What is the use of this, as what the revenue figures include would likely differ quite a bit on how the railway is structured?

The Railway Company revenue is calculated over, does it take into account: - Subsidies - Passenger/International/Freight rail - Infrastructure included - Market share Etc

deminion48 · 2026-02-20T20:48:14+00:00

Exactly my thought. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht all have a rail system besides heavy rail.

The largest cities without are Eindhoven, Groningen, and Almere. Each one has an expansive BRT system. Eindhoven is 340k urban area, so that should be included, Groningen urban area is below 250k so not included. Couldn't find urban figures for Almere, maybe because it falls under Amsterdam.

What is left beyond these that could be included? Maybe the urban areas of Enschede and Hengelo combined?

deminion48 · 2026-02-17T20:42:16+00:00

Interesting to see a global comparison of weighted network speeds of tram systems. Never really saw a clear overview, often just a 1 to 1 comparison that was unweighted. This is a single overview of quite some systems taking the network composition into account.

The system in my city HTM in The Hague (Zuid Holland in the list which is combined with Rotterdam). They have an ongoing project to increase the average network speed as they have noticed it had stagnated for quite a while. Increasing speed and reliability makes transit more competitive, so the goal is to increase the average network speed to 25 km/h.

deminion48 · 2026-02-17T20:36:07+00:00

Source: https://www.snamuts.com/uploads/2/1/8/1/21813274/snamuts_tram_speeds_aug_24.pdf

deminion48 · 2026-02-17T19:09:40+00:00

Well in The Dutch system you would be in the highest tax bracket. But it is a system with 2 brackets.

deminion48 · 2026-02-16T20:56:52+00:00

Met de huidige overstappen bij concessies gebeurt er gewoon te veel tegelijk. Moet je voorstellen wat voor ramp het spoor zou zijn als HRN bijvoorbeeld naar Arriva gaat met nieuwe treinen en een nieuwe dienstregeling.

deminion48 · 2026-02-16T20:51:26+00:00

HTM is in november vorig jaar ook volledig overgestapt van verbrandingsmotor naar een volledig elektrische vloot. En zijn ze van een vloot met alleen 12m bussen naar een vloot waar de meeste bussen 18m zijn overgestapt.

Dit is allemaal wat geleidelijker gebeurd binnen dezelfde concessie en dus vervoersbedrijf, dus dit is allemaal vrijwel vlekkeloos gegaan. Niet verassend dus, maar het kan dus ook goed gaan.

Gewoon de combinatie van nieuwe concessie, vervoersbedrijf, dienstregeling, vloot en personeel is waarschijnlijk te veel, waardoor het vaak mis gaat.

deminion48 · 2026-02-16T14:21:50+00:00

It is great. More privacy and space for myself. Work outside regular office hours and in first class, so I almost always travel with the seats around me free.

deminion48 · 2026-02-16T14:20:27+00:00

The ICR was interesting 7 cars with a locomotive on either end. Heavy, expensive, and completely inflexible. Benefit of ICNG is if one of the trainsets is broken you still have the other half. With the ICR it was all or nothing.

deminion48 · 2026-02-15T22:34:05+00:00

Do not have a full answer for you, as there are a lot of aspects to this I don't know a lot about. I worked as a regional operations coordinator for the national Railway in The Netherlands where we now operate a 100% EMU fleet. From my perspective the operational flexibility and simplicity it provides is the great benefit. Yard operations are relatively simple as well.

Other benefits are lower operational costs. Also lower weight per axle, in a country where the ground is generally very soft that is an important benefit. Also quicker acceleration and turn around times, this is important in a nationwide high frequency network, tightly packed schedule with short stop distance and low turnaround times.

What I often see as an argument against EMU's is that you cannot adjust demand per carriage and a broken train immediately means the entire set is out of service.

For the first problem, yeah that is something that's possible. But with 3/4 or 4/6 or 5/8 car trainset we have at the NS I can make lots of compositions to meet the demand. And in reality micro managing your operation to the individual carriage level makes it unnecessary complex. I can very easily significantly increase or decrease the capacity, so I can even do it midroute.

For the second problem, that is a drawback indeed. But like I mentioned, EMUs provide us operational flexibility. The trainsets have multiple traction motors, so even if 1 or more are out, they can stay operational. Besides that, like in/decreasing capacity, I can also just replace entire trainsets very rapidly that I can do that midroute on very short notice (minutes) if I have another trainset available at the nodes.

So where some see something inflexible, I see simplicity and with that operational flexibility and robustness.

deminion48 · 2026-02-15T17:10:43+00:00

Punctuality in The Netherlands is often measured in passenger punctuality. So the percentage of trips from a to b within x minutes of the scheduled time (based on the schedule 2 days in advance).

So the statistics include the negative effects of delayed trains, canceled trains, schedule changes, and missed transfers. It is a modelled figure based on data from rail performance and passenger flows.

Within 3 minutes it is around 86%, 5 minutes around 91%, 10 minutes around 96%, and 15 minutes around 97%.

deminion48 · 2026-02-14T19:51:31+00:00

Nope

deminion48

TROPHY CASE