Dutch railway company NS will carry out the biggest overhaul of its services in 10 years in December, the state-owned firm said on Friday.

The entire rail timetable has been changed and almost all passengers will be affected, the railway service said.

‘The changes are necessary because we expect to move an extra 20,000 travellers a day in the coming years,’ spokeswoman Lisa Neves Gonçalves told broadcaster NOS. ‘We had to design the service all over again because the previous timetable did not give us the leeway.’

Some trips will involve shorter journeys and the links between cities have been improved, she said. ‘However, we have not been able to improve services for everyone and some people will have to change trains more often, or make longer journeys.’

Among the main changes: the number of intercity trains between Almere and Schiphol will be doubled from two to four an hour and there will be fewer stops on the Arnhem to Nijmegen intercity services. Intercity trains between The Hague and Eindhoven will use the high-speed rail line to cut travel times.

However, passengers travelling from Venlo to The Hague face a longer trip and will have to change trains in Eindhoven, NS said.

The new timetable comes into effect on December 11.