Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways)

The advantages of working with Munckhof are most evident during complex projects.

As the largest railway company in the Netherlands, NS is responsible for all traveller services and railway transport along the main rail routes in the country. The company transports 1.1 million travellers throughout the Netherlands every day.

Alternative transportation

'Munckhof is one of the partners that helps us provide alternative transportation,' explains Hans Montanus, head of customer service for NS. 'Munckhof provides excellent bus services when trains are unable to run due to scheduled or unscheduled maintenance work. We have worked together on large-scale projects in Zwolle, Den Bosch and Eindhoven. When we perform major maintenance work at these stations, trains may not be able to run for several weeks at a time. As a result, all travellers must be transported by bus instead. We always call on Munckhof to help us with these huge projects.'

Logistical challenges

'What makes these projects both unique and logistically challenging is that we have to transport thousands of passengers at once. Den Bosch is a good example of this. At a certain point, the buses were departing every two minutes. We had to plan our routes to and from the city carefully so as not to disrupt normal traffic or cause lengthy delays. This required close collaboration among Munckhof, the municipality and us.'

Communication is key

'Communication is key, especially when the organization is under a lot of pressure. If an overhead wire fails on a railway line, Munckhof needs to be able to dispatch twenty to sixty buses as quickly as possible. This is when collaboration between the operational managers at NS and the management team at Munckhof becomes essential. Munckhof understands what we want and what we expect from them when a problem arises. Our partnership has been incredibly pleasant so far.'

www.ns.nl

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