Train tickets will become much more expensive next year following railway operator ProRail’s decision to increase its charges by 17%, the Volkskrant quotes Dutch Rail (NS) as saying on Tuesday.

The NS said the planned increase in fees to use the tracks is ‘absurd’ and that it plans to complain to the competition authority NMa.
This year, NS is paying €175m to use the railway tracks. Next year that will go up by €30m. ProRail also gets some €2bn a year from the treasury.
ProRail said the increase was due to the more ‘business-like’ approach within the railway sector. ‘It is a stimulus to users to look critically at which services they want to buy in,’ a spokesman said.
NS and ProRail are both 100% state-owned companies.