The Netherlands has a dense railway network connecting all major cities, as well as most larger towns, with over 400 stations in a rather small country. The largest operator (Nederlandse Spoorwegen or NS) is semi-private owned and is mainly focusses on passenger transport during both day and night. The NS has two different groups of trains:

• The ‘Sprinter’ or ‘local train’ (top image) is made for commuters that need to travel short distances and stops at both smaller and larger railway stations. The average travel time is around 15 minutes with this train. It stops at all stations.
• The ‘Intercity’ or ‘interstate train’ (bottom image) is made for travellers that need to travel longer distances. These trains stop only at the larger train stations. The comfortable design and facilities in this train are adapted to a longer travel time.

Besides NS, there are more companies that operate in The Netherlands, mostly within specific states (provinces) as well as different freight companies. The infrastructural network, on which they all operate, is managed by a different semi-private party (ProRail), which is responsible for allocating slots to the different companies. The complexity in the network arises from different preferences in the transport. The focus of the passenger network is not only on frequent connections between big cities, but also on making as many direct connections as possible. In general any combination of intercity station can be linked with a maximum of one transfer.

Direct intercity lines for example run from Groningen to Rotterdam, Enschede to Den Haag (The Hague), and Maastricht to Alkmaar. All these links span around 200 km, which is approximatly the width of the country. Furthermore, from most of the intercity stations a direct link to Schiphol airport being one of the main hubs in the Dutch network. All these direct links, and long connections make that especially the central part of the network (between Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Amersfoort and Utrecht), can quickly become a logistical nightmare. Delay on just one of the long routes can influence many of the other routes crossing or sharing some of the same sections.

Besides passenger transport also freight transport has to share on parts of the same network. The main origin and destination for freight trains in the Netherlands is Rotterdam Harbour. From here freight connections are established with many places all over Europe. There is even a train link all the way to China. Although a dedicated rail-line is now available for freight trains to Germany. Due to the limited capacity once crossing the German border, not all freight-trains can use this connection at the moment. This means many freight trains still have to be sharing the passenger network as well.

After examining the Dutch national railway infrastructure, we will take a closer look at the Japanese network, which is most famous for their punctual high speed network. If you are a frequent user of this system, please feel free to add details and facts in the discussion at the bottom of this page to enrich others on the worldwide known bullet trains.

Rail transport in Japan primarily focusses on passengers, especially high speed and mass travel between the major cities. The most prominent operator is Japan Railways group, commonly known as “JR”, which provides a service throughout the country, which is divided in six regions. This government-owned network runs the Shinkansen (bullet train) routes, which reach a maximum speed of 320km/h and operate on separate tracks from regular trains.

In addition to this, each big city has at least one private train line that serves the city and its surroundings. In post-war Japan, the government stimulated private corporations to develop their own railway line in order to rebuild the transportation network. Nowadays, this privatised network is efficient, extremely punctually and affordable.

On the left: the Shinkansen network. On the right: the Shinkansen (images from this source)

During rush-hour, the Shinkansen trains run as frequently as every ten minutes and sometimes even more. Most trains only have reserved seating (in Europe, this is only comparable to high-speed international trains, like Thalys). While tourists make use of this fast connections as well, they can only make reservations for specific trains, which still run multiple times an hour. Most bullet-trains are for Japanese commuting only, which creates an extremely fast and reliable network, enabling people to work and live in different main cities with limited travel time.

The high-speed train tracks have very little elevation and run right through mountains, of which there are many in Japan. It creates an extreme fast and reliable network, beating any other form of transport, like cars and airplanes. Regular trains are similar to other countries, with a great diversity of design and age.

Comparing the travel time between the cities of Sendai and Niigata gives a clear idea of the difference in rail transport. On a sky-wide distance of around 140 km, the regular trains bring you over the mountains in six to seven hours, whereas the Shinkansen takes you there in under four hours. An interesting fact in this case is that the Shinkansen travels over Tokyo, making the total travel distance almost 800km, but is still much faster.