Nederlandse Spoorwegen

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS; ˈneːdərlɑntsə ˈspoːrˌʋeːɣə(n); "Dutch Railways") is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The Dutch rail network is the busiest in the European Union, and the third busiest in the world after Switzerland and Japan. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operator NS Cargo merged with DB Cargo in 2000. NS runs 4,800 scheduled domestic trains a day, serving 1.1 million passengers. The NS also provides international rail services from the Netherlands to other European destinations and carries out concessions on some foreign rail markets through its subsidiary Abellio. History of rail transport in the Netherlands World War I caused an economic downturn in the Netherlands that caused the two largest Dutch railway companies, Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HSM) and Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen (SS), to become unprofitable. The companies avoided bankruptcy by integrating their operations, which occurred by 1917. The cooperation was by economic and ideological reasons. The state provided support by buying shares in both companies. In 1938, the state bought the remaining shares and merged the companies to create NS; NS was not nationalised. Holocaust trains#Netherlands During World War II, NS was forced by the Germans to construct railways to Westerbork transit camp and transport almost a hundred thousand Jews to extermination camps. The company's only wartime strike was during the Dutch famine of 1944–45; NS opted not to strike a year earlier. NS played a pivotal role in the post-war reconstruction of the Netherlands; only it could provide the required logistical services in a time when there was little alternative to rail transport. The company declined in the 1960s - like many other railways - and operated at a loss. There was increased competition from other modes of transport.