NS wants everyone to be able to travel without any problems. We make it as easy as possible for passengers to travel independently and offer assistance where necessary. Accessibility is addressed in the development of new products and services. The majority of the accessibility measures are suggested by the target group itself. When developing measures, we work closely with people with functional disabilities. In June NS introduced a new booking and journey monitoring system for journey assistance. This system makes booking journey assistance easier and enables customers to monitor the course of their journey. We introduced journey assistance at nine additional stations in 2018. These were the Bloemendaal, Akkrum, Olst, Amersfoort Vathorst, Dieren, Ravenstein, Rilland-Bath, Hillegom and Wormerveer stations. Rhenen station will be added in March 2019. We also started a trial for visually impaired passengers in which they receive assistance at three stations in finding their connecting train or bus.
More and more Sprinter trains have retractable steps. 22.1% of Sprinter trains were independently accessible in 2018 (the target for 2019 is 52.9%). In combination with a platform at the same height, wheelchair users are able to board trains independently at increasing numbers of stations. We give passengers journey information about this.