We can promote safety within society by offering safe transport and a safe environment for passengers and staff. At NS, we are working on occupational safety, personal safety and safe travel. This year the social costs for occupational safety and personal safety were calculated using a different calculation method. This new calculation ensures a higher degree of accuracy when calculating the social costs of accidents at work. Comparison to previous years is no longer possible because there is no data available for recalculations.
The social costs of occupational safety in 2018 were €15 million. In terms of the occupational safety of our staff, NS is working on preventing physical or mental harm to our employees, for instance as a result of unsafe working conditions, which can mean they are unable to work (or not able to work full-time) or may need care. NS took further steps in 2018 to encourage staff to report unsafe situations and to reduce unsafe working conditions, for instance through sound risk assessment and evaluation reports.
Over recent years we have taken various measures in terms of personal safety, such as the use of cameras, body cams and security staff at stations where passengers feel unsafe. We cooperate closely with the police, municipalities and other carriers. We made agreements with our partners to carry out actions together to increase the level of safety. This has improved customer satisfaction for personal safety. The social impact of personal safety was around €10 million in 2018.

Safe journey

To provide safe travel, NS is working with its partners on preventing collisions and derailments and unsafe situations at the stations. The social costs were €0.5 million in 2018, down on 2017. The number of traffic accidents in journeys to and from the station and the impact of these accidents was much higher; the figure of approximately €107 million is comparable to 2017. Travelling by train is relatively safe compared to transport by car. The positive impact resulting from accidents that are avoided because of people actively choosing the train was only calculated for the ‘elective passengers’. The social benefits of safe transport by train were approximately €620 million in 2018 (€593 million in 2017).