Cycling for Everyone
Cycling for Everyone
Knowledge

Study visit Deutsche Bahn and NS

14 February 2023

One of the first study visits in 2023 was from the Deutsche Bahn ‘Call a Bike’-team. Together with NS, we organized an interactive day with lots of interesting discussions. The goal of both organizations is a seamless connection between train travel and first and last mile solutions. At this moment, DB has 13.000 public transportation bikes in seven cities. The NS already exploits 22.000 ov-fietsen at 300 train stations throughout the country.

 

We discussed two main differences between the German system and the Dutch system. First, the NS provides the ov-fiets (public transportation bike) merely for the last mile. These bikes are both picked up and brought back to the same train station. Whereas in Germany, the system is free floating, and bikes can be left everywhere within the dedicated zones. Second, the Dutch bike sharing is integrated in the payment methods for public transportation. In Germany, this is a separate model with different kinds of subscriptions for different kinds of users.

 

After the presentations indoors, we visited the ov-fiets depot. At this location with hundreds of public transportation bikes, broken bikes are repaired so they can be used again. Then, we visited the largest bike parking facility in the world at Utrecht Central Station. Finally, the delegation went to Driebergen-Zeist train station to visit one of the first ebike locations of the NS.

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Nederlandse Spoorwegen

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