The cooperation was for both economic and ideological reasons, and the state provided support by buying shares in both companies.

NS played a pivotal role in the post-war reconstruction of the Netherlands; it provided the required logistical services in a time when there was little alternative to rail transport.

NS was reorganized following the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s and the 1991 EU Directive 91/440; the latter required railway infrastructure and transport activities to be managed independently.

The changes were carried out by Rob den Besten, who became chief executive officer of NS after the retirement of Leo Ploeger.

Passenger transport was to be conducted on a commercial basis, but the state continued to subsidize non-viable routes.

Internally, route managers assumed de facto control, but they were dependent on a different organ in the company[clarify] The freight business, NS Cargo, merged with Deutsche Bahn; the resulting company operated as Railion in 2000 and then as DB Cargo.

The timetable change on 10 December 2006 saw the most routes to approximate the symmetry minute in clock-face schedules to the one used in most other European countries.

[4] In 2022, the company made significant cuts in its timetable, running fewer and shorter trains, as a consequence of personnel shortages.

NS has also entered into a partnership with KLM to operate services on the new HSL-Zuid under the name Intercity Direct towards Breda and Brussels.

[19] Travelling using contactless works as following:[20] At the start of your journey, place your smartphone or bank card in front of the reader to check-in.

The costs will be shown in your bank transfer statement the next day, along with a website link and code to get your travel itinerary.

[22] Travelling with these cards and tickets, one has to register starting a journey (check-in) and ending it (check out) at the destination.

The OV-chipkaart is also used on buses and trams, where hourly tickets are for sale for those who have too little credit to travel but enough cash.

The logo, pervasive within trains and railway stations in the Netherlands, plays a significant part in Nederlandse Spoorwegen's signage, promotions, advertising, and graphic design.

In dealing with the general public, these distinctions are not made and the terms Nederlandse Spoorwegen and NS are used.

This concluded a long history of planning, designing and executing track development done by the NS.

The scheme does not apply on short-distance journeys (tickets less than €2.30) and cases in which the delay is the result of planned cancellations that were announced some days in advance.

The refund is not considered monetary compensation for lost time but rather as a reduction in charges where poor service has been provided.

[39] Since June 2003, the sale of coffee, soft drinks, beer, sandwiches, candy, etc., has ceased aboard domestic trains.

The increasing number of Servex convenience stores at railway stations and the relatively short duration of most train journeys in the Netherlands have lowered the demand for on-train services.

Now, the RailTender service primarily operates in the intercity trains on the trajectory between Utrecht and Zwolle/Eindhoven, Zwolle and Almere, 's-Hertogenbosch and Nijmegen, Apeldoorn and Amersfoort, Rotterdam and Breda/Roosendaal/Antwerp.

Conductors have a smartphone with a timetable, fares information, and a separate card reader to read the OV-chipkaart.

Train drivers use a tablet with an app called "TimTim" to save energy and keep up with the timetable.