Annual Report 2014 See ns.nl/jaarverslag for the online version IN BRIEF First Public Transport Service Centres 4,100,000 opened in The Hague and Breda Journey Planner Xtra downloads 400,000 to 500,000 journey recommendations per day NEW More than 1,500,000 Button for feedback on overcrowding in the train trips by public transport bicycle 9 July 2014 76% of passengers give a score of Everyone in the Netherlands is using 7 out of 10 or higher the public transport smartcard for train travel for checking in and out Clean trains The target of 55% was not feasible because of the cleaners’ strike Trains are now running 2.2% more eciently 18,000 days of training have been INTERCITY BRUSSELS taken by our Certicate sta up from 12 to 16 times a day Mobility has a positive impact on society Punctuality 94.9% 94.9% of trains ran on time This was 93.6% in 2013 Journey times have a negative impact on society From 2018 onwards, all Dutch electric trains will be running on green electricity Prot in 2014 Investments in 2014 Revenue in 2014 180 million euros 461 million euros 4,144 million euros 100% Tackling overcrowding The ScotRail franchise was won 54 in the train in the United Kingdom signals passed 74.6% of passengers give -0.9% at danger 7 out of 10 or in 2014 higher 28,348 NS employees 2014 in a nutshell We took steps in 2014, together with other public transport carriers and stakeholders, to put the passenger even more at the centre of things. One result of this has been the tentative improvement that we have seen in overall customer satisfaction, punctuality and our reputation. Cleanliness and overcrowding in the trains scored below par. NS has extended its impact analysis for 2014 from the environment only to include socio- economic impacts as well. This shows how important our door-to-door strategy is. Our primary objectives Looking ahead The top priorities for NS are passengers, passengers and pas- 2014 2014 2013 sengers. Every day. 2015 will largely be about implementing Target the new integrated franchise (which runs from 2015 to 2024). Customer satisfaction 76% 76% 75% Punctuality for passengers 92.3% 90.5% 90.0% Over the coming years, NS will continue improving personal LTI Frequency Rate 3.3 3.8 4.3 safety and combating fare dodging. One way of doing this Reputation 53.5 53.0 50.2 will be to use the access gates at stations. Before the end of 2017, 82 stations will have these gates. In addition, NS will Although we did achieve all our main targets, NS has to continue to work as hard as ever with other carriers and stake- remember that merely ‘good’ is not good enough. We will holders to improve mobility in the Netherlands by making the therefore be concentrating in the coming years specifically on door-to-door journey and public transport as a whole simpler areas where performance is not so good and we will continue and more attractive. to invest, e.g. in new Sprinters, IT and journey information. It is our ambition to take the main objectives systematically up to the next level by 2017. Our finances The profit after tax for 2014 was €180 million (2013: a loss of €43 million, partly due to the loss of the V250 trains). The result for 2014 was partly due to exceptional effects, such as the release of provisions that had previously been set aside. The underlying operating result, after correcting for the ex- ceptional items, was insufficient at just €84 million (2013: €78 million). The result will come under additional pressure in 2015 because of the increased franchise costs (including those for being allowed to use the tracks) and considerable investments (in new trains, accessibility, IT and e.g. main- tenance workshops). The revenue came to €4,144 million (2013: €3,873 million). Contents 1 2 Annual report in brief 2 8 Company profile 3 12 Report by the Executive Board 4 16 Report by the Supervisory Board 5 21 Dialogue with our stakeholders 6 30 Our strategy 7 37 Activity report 38 The train journey experience 44 Operational performance 52 The door-to-door journey 58 Our activities in Europe 61 Other activities 65 Our finances 8 71 Our impact on the environment and on society 9 79 Managing risks 10 89 Corporate governance 11 95 Outlook for 2015 12 97 Scope and reporting criteria 13 101 Financial statements 102 Consolidated balance sheet 2014 169 Separate financial statements 2014 174 Other 174 Other information 183 NS ten-year summary Annual report 2014 5 Foreword On 15 December 2014 at Den Haag Hollands Spoor through the Journey Planner Xtra app, giving us more “station, state secretary Wilma Mansveld, ProRail director information for making tweaks and adjustments. Patrick Buck and I signed the track operation and passenger transport franchise for 2015-2024. ProRail, the Ministry of We also reached a milestone with the public transport smart- Infrastructure and the Environment and NS have made clear card in 2014: the first country in the world where all public agreements about how we want to work with each other and transport passengers check in and out with this smartcard. other carriers and public transport partners to make sure that To make this go as smoothly as possible, we deployed a large all passengers have a positive experience with public transport number of extra staff at the stations and in the Customer every day. Placing our signatures was a nice way to end the Service department. Another key moment was when NS year, as well as a symbolic step towards 2015 and the years signed a contract with Eneco for green power on behalf of thereafter. all the carriers: from 2018 onwards, all electric trains in the Netherlands will be running entirely on green electricity, with In this annual report, we are primarily providing information half doing so from as early as 2015. about the past year for our Dutch stakeholders. In 2014, we laid the foundations for the coming franchise period. NS The new timetable came into effect on 14 December 2014. has realigned its strategy so that it will be able to keep the Every station now has at least one train every half hour in both promises it has made for its passengers over the next ten directions during the daytime on weekdays. We are operating years. Our top three priorities for all our processes are passen- 16 trains a day jointly with NMBS on the high-speed line be- gers, passengers and passengers: we are aiming for a good tween Amsterdam and Brussels. The Thalys goes to Brussels passenger experience for everyone in their door-to-door jour- 12 times a day, with a number of these trains continuing to neys. In this door-to-door strategy, we are also responding Paris or Lille. to the changing demands that are being made of public transport. We are using our activities abroad to learn and NS won the Kristalprijs (an award for clarity in environmental acquire experience that will be used where possible to the reporting) in 2014, largely for the environmental profit and benefit of Dutch passengers. loss account that was included in the 2013 Annual Report. We have extended that reporting further in this annual report We also introduced ‘Simplicity, Unity and Ownership’ as a and are now also quantifying our socio-economic impact on three-pronged management principle for the day-to-day work society. of all NS staff. We wanted the company’s senior manage- ment to be closer to the operations, allowing decisions to Over the coming years, we will be raising the bar even higher be based on an integral overview and management to act for the services we provide, with due consideration for our more effectively; with this in mind, we changed the com- obligations and our passengers’ and stakeholders’ expecta- pany’s control structure in 2014. Since then, we have been tions. The aim is to get even more people opting to travel by working with an Executive Committee comprising the two- public transport. man Executive Board plus the directors of the business units, HR and Communications & Strategy. We would like to thank all our staff for their contributions over the past year.” NS can look back on a year in which the results in terms of customer satisfaction and punctuality were generally satis- Timo Huges factory. That is all well and good, but we are also focusing more on routes and stations where performance is still not good enough, for instance because the trains are too over- crowded or because delays occur too often. We want to be trans parent about this and so we have been asking passengers them selves for feedback as of last year. They can do that Annual report 2014 7 Company 2 profile 8 NS operates in the public transport sector. It provides reliable passenger transport, comfortable trains and buses, lively stations and station areas and a range of services for a pleasant journey from door to door. Our 28,500 employees put their combined efforts into a single mission: making passengers feel connected by NS. The operations of NS cover both passenger transport and station development and operation, with combined revenues of €4.1 billion. More than 86% of that comes from passenger transport. NS in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. NS Reizigers is responsible for rail transport operations on The oldest predecessor of NS, HIJSM, was founded in 1837.