Groningen railway station and intermodality

[NCT]

Groningen railway station underwent extensive remodelling last year. All the rail works seem complete but some wider public real works are still in progress.

The general operating principle is that platforms 1-3 on the north side are for local services currently operated by Arriva, and platforms 4-7 on the south side are for NS services to/from Zwoller and beyond.

The brand new underground passageway:

Platforms 1-3 with Arriva readers



Platforms 4-7 with NS barriers



The platforms do not share a common paid area. An ORCATS type system allowing passengers to travel operator agnostically would be a lot more passenger friendlier.

Back on the surface, separate ticket machines for NS and Arriva



Appearance wise this is no different to GB mainline stations with different TOC branded tickets. However, if I remember correctly, unlike GB, the NS and Arriva ticket machines do not run off a common back-office database

 

[DanielB]

Photo 1 and 2 appear to be swapped around.

And although Arriva and NS have their own ticket machines, they are quite similar in functionality: the NS one can sell tickets to any station in the Netherlands as can the Arriva one.

Only unsure what happens when buying a ticket for a trip involving multiple options with different operators. The NS machine then displays a map with route options and the options "NS only", "NS+regional" or "any route". But don't know what Arriva would sell in such a case.

 

[NCT]

Photo 1 and 2 appear to be swapped around.

And although Arriva and NS have their own ticket machines, they are quite similar in functionality: the NS one can sell tickets to any station in the Netherlands as can the Arriva one.
Only unsure what happens when buying a ticket for a trip involving multiple options with different operators. The NS machine then displays a map with route options and the options "NS only", "NS+regional" or "any route". But don't know what Arriva would sell in such a case.

Thanks for the corrections. The ticket machine situation is more similar to that jn GB than I thought!

(I’ll swap the photos when I’m back on a big screen)

 

[johncrossley]

It should be borne in mind that very few people use the ticket machines in the Netherlands. I'd be curious to know what the split is between

1. Paper ticket (actually disposable smartcard)
2. E-ticket
3. OV-Chipkaart
4. Contactless bank card
5. OV-Pas

I would speculate that 3/4/5 is over 90%.

 

[grinderx]

I suspect E tickets (I.e. in the NS app) are much more common off peak. Longer distance journeys can be cheaper that way, and the locals know it.

 

[DanielB]

I suspect E tickets (I.e. in the NS app) are much more common off peak. Longer distance journeys can be cheaper that way, and the locals know it.

E-tickets are still quite common indeed. Not only for the price-time deals, but NS also still has the Spoordeelwinkel which sells tickets for for example a city trip + train ticket. Those are all E-tickets.
And e-tickets are also the only option to buy for example a bike supplement without paper-ticket-surcharge when someone has NS Flex.

But 3/4/5 form the majority indeed. And besides that the NS ticket machines are almost the only remaining location for picking up OV-chipkaart products, but that's happening less and less when more regions transition to OVpay for subscriptions.

NS is actually already in the process of removing ticket machines from stations (at least one will remain) due to lack of use. Though that's the officially communicated reason: I read somewhere the actual reason is that the machines are quite old and therefore the removed machines are used for spare parts as some of the parts are no longer produced by their manufacturer.

 

[NCT]

Groningen railway station has an integrated bus station. It is accessed from the station cross passageway like a railway platform:



Information on Dutch city / conurbation sizes seem to be scanter / less consistent than for other countries - this article places it at over 500k, somewhere between Leicester and Nottingham.

This is the kind of city size where it would have a tram system in France and (east) Germany, but here in Gronginen the bus network is almost skeletal. From anecdotal observations, the rate of cycling is very high (typical of the Netherlands). Here's a map of Groningen's bus network. A proper PDF and timetables are available from the operator website. The combined corridor frequencies appear to be much lower than Nottingham's.



Being essentially the size of a railway platform island the bus station is generous for the number of movements per hour it needs to accommodate. In all honestly it all felt a bit empty and sterile.



This model clearly wouldn't work for a typical UK city of similar size. The practicalities of fitting a bus station within UK cities' generally well preserved historic fabric aside, concentrating UK number of buses in one place would just overwhelm that place (Preston and Derby probably the main exceptions, but the bus stations are not where the rail stations are). In Nottingham's context, having the Green City Loop on Carrington Street connecting buses to other directions dotted all over the city seems a good compromise between connectivity, accessibility and urban realm.

Groningen's buses are shoved to the periphery of the city centre, with the Grote Markt and the surrounding streets decidedly 'reserved' for cafes and pubs 'for the middle classes'. On the other hand several of Nottingham's bus routes pass / terminate right by the Old Market Square on King / Queen Street, Angel Row and Beastmarket Hill.

 

[johncrossley]

Information on Dutch city / conurbation sizes seem to be scanter / less consistent than for other countries - this article places it at over 500k, somewhere between Leicester and Nottingham.

The whole province is only 600,000 according to Wikipedia. It is clear just by looking at the map it is clearly not in the same league as Nottingham or Leicester. The municipality population is about 250,000 and the urban area doesn't expand much beyond that (just Haren really), unlike Nottingham where there are several sizeable towns in the vicinity (Gelding, Arnold, Beeston, Long Eaton etc.)

It's a student city and the cycle rate has been quoted as the highest in the world, therefore cycling takes away much of the type of journeys carried out by bus in the UK. However, the BRT is quite decent for the size of the place.

 

[Bemined]

This is the kind of city size where it would have a tram system in France and (east) Germany, but here in Gronginen the bus network is almost skeletal.

There has been an attempt to reintroduce trams in Groningen, but eventually the plan failed. One of the lines would have gone to the university, the other one via the hospital to the suburbs north-east of the city. Challenge however was that the old inner city wasn't very suitable for trams though. Also the university is really not that far from the city, the tram would probably not be much faster than cycling. Eventually the plan got cancelled after the municipal executive refused to approve the budget.

 

[johncrossley]

Groningen university is right in the city centre, close to the Grote Markt, so definitely no need for a tram for such a short distance. Following British transport culture, if Groningen was in the UK only a few buses would go near the railway station, basically only those routes which by chance happen to pass the station on their way.

 

[NCT]

Groningen university is right in the city centre, close to the Grote Markt, so definitely no need for a tram for such a short distance. Following British transport culture, if Groningen was in the UK only a few buses would go near the railway station, basically only those routes which by chance happen to pass the station on their way.

Which in aggregate number of buses per hour 'between town and station' would be very similar.

 

[Struner]

Groningen university is right in the city centre, close to the Grote Markt, so definitely no need for a tram for such a short distance. Following British transport culture, if Groningen was in the UK only a few buses would go near the railway station, basically only those routes which by chance happen to pass the station on their way.

The administrative center of RuG is right in the center indeed, but quite a few colleges are at Zernike. & there is also “Hanze University” at Zernike.

 

[johncrossley]

The administrative center of RuG is right in the center indeed, but quite a few colleges are at Zernike. & there is also “Hanze University” at Zernike.

That makes a lot more sense for a tram! The existing bus service runs at least 10 times per hour in morning peak, using larger than normal articulated buses, so must be very busy. It doesn't stop in the town centre at all, going direct from the railway station along the BRT route south of the railway tracks and then on the ring road. Therefore most passengers must be connecting at the station from trains or other buses.

Lijn 15 Groningen, Centraal Station - Zernike - OV in Nederland Wiki

​

Frequenties
Spits	minimaal 10x/uur (ochtend) minimaal 8x/uur (middag)

 

[Struner]

knowledge is an easy burden

 

[Jim the Jim]

I once missed a cross-platform NS-Arriva connection because I had to go downstairs to tap out and in again!

The Netherlands has very good bus networks elsewhere, but I have the general impression the infrastructure is less good in the north. From what I've seen cyclists aren't as quite well-provided for either.

 

[DanielB]

I once missed a cross-platform NS-Arriva connection because I had to go downstairs to tap out and in again!

Normally you shouldn't have to as there are poles on the platform for that purpose. Though it may go wrong with platform changes as not every platform may have those poles.

 

[johncrossley]

The Netherlands has very good bus networks elsewhere, but I have the general impression the infrastructure is less good in the north. From what I've seen cyclists aren't as quite well-provided for either.

The north is less heavily populated so you would expect the service to be less intensive. The express network around Groningen, Assen and Drachten is very good. As mentioned in other threads, they now use impressive Yutong U15s.

Surprised about your cycling comment given that Groningen and Assen are regularly praised in cycling blogs.

 

[DanielB]

Actually the network in the north is pretty good compared to other less populated areas in the country. They especially have quite a large long distance BRT network, which is actually one of the largest in the entire country.
That is mainly caused by the Groningen-Drenthe franchise being a very large one in which the buses cover a whopping 40 million kilometres each year. For more data: https://staatvanhetov.nl/mosaic/staat-van-het-ov/dashboard-concessiegebied (in Dutch, also with an option to compare franchises with eachother).

Groningen/Drenthe is by the way also one of the very few regions that use double decker buses in the Netherlands. Though temporarily not as a viaduct along the route to the new Groningen bus station needs to be adapted for those buses to fit underneath it.

 

[NCT]

The new bus station is on the south side of the station. The old bus station on the north, or 'town' side of the station currently lies unused. I believe there are plans for redeveloping this area?

(I thought I had a picture, but I don't)

Now onto pedestrian routes into town, which involve crossing Stationweg and then the going over the Werkmanbrug.

If you exit the station through the historic station building, you are most likely to encounter this set of crossings:



There's a narrow strip of pavement; you have to cross the cycle lane first (where pedestrians do not have priority), and there's very limited area between the cycle lane and the narrow end of the pedestrian crossing. There are no dropped kerbs across the cycle lane.

I found most people exited the station through the gap to the east of the station building (where those ticket machines are). Here you are directed to cross the cycle lane then the old (now disused) bus stop bays over the blue painted strip. This way has full dropped kerbs over the cycle lane





Either crossing takes you to one side of the Blaue Magneet.



From either direction the default way is up the steps through the Blaue Magneet onto the pedestrian and cycles shared Werkmanbrug. I found visibility of cycles really poor through the Blaue Magneet, and I found Dutch cyclists to be quite unforgiving in their speeds and sheer volumes.

If you were in a wheelchair or lugging heavy suitcases, it seemed the only way was to get up the slopes of the cycle lanes. I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing this space with cyclists.