Schiphol railway station

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Schiphol

Code	Shl
Opened	1978
Platform tracks	6

Coordinates: 52°18′32″N 4°45′42″E / 52.30889°N 4.76167°E / 52.30889; 4.76167

Schiphol railway station is a major passenger station located directly beneath the terminal complex of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and operated by the Dutch national railway company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen. The station is accessible via six escalators located in the main concourse of the airport.

History

The original station opened on 21 December 1978. This station was partly at street level and was demolished to be replaced in 1995 by the current station.

In 1978 it was only possible to travel to Amsterdam Zuid WTC and Amsterdam RAI, as well as southwards toward Leiden, The Hague and Rotterdam. To get to Amsterdam Centraal, it was necessary to travel to RAI and change onto tram 4. This changed in 1986 when the Amsterdam Ring railway (Westtak) opened, linking these two points.

As Schipol Airport, surrounding the railway station, is the largest airport in the Netherlands and the primary international gateway, the station has become an important part of the railway network.

Destinations

There are several trains per hour to Amsterdam Centraal, and frequent services to the rest of the country as well. These include intercity services to The Hague, Rotterdam, Eindhoven, Enschede, Groningen and Leeuwarden.

A new flyover also provides direct connections to Utrecht and the south of the country. This so-called Utrechtboog opened on 12 March 2006. It connects two existing lines (Utrecht-Amsterdam Central Station and Schiphol-Weesp) and is located more or less between the stations Amsterdam RAI and Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA. It replaces the necessary interchange at Duivendrecht station.

An hourly night train connects Schiphol with Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Delft, Leiden and The Hague between 1am and 5am.

Thalys operates a TGV-like rail service between Amsterdam, Schiphol, The Hague, Rotterdam, Antwerp-Centraal, Brussel-Zuid and Gare du Nord in Paris. It runs at high speed between Brussels and Paris, and, from 13 December 2009, also between Antwerp and Schiphol over the HSL-Zuid.

Train services

There are four types of train series in the Netherlands, these are:

• InterCity These are express trains calling only at a few stations. The fastest type of train in the Netherlands.
• Sneltrein These are semi-fast services calling at some stations on the route, a mix between Intercity and Stoptrein. To be phased out in December 2008.
• Stoptrein These are trains that stop at all or most of the stations. Often more local than long distance.
• Sprinter These are trains that stop at all stations and mostly are operated by SGMm 'Sprinter' train sets.

The following services currently call at Schiphol:

Other facilities

Schiphol Plaza is the shopping center before customs, hence not only for air travellers, but also for people who just change train here, etcetera. There is a medium-sized supermarket, Food Village, that is open until midnight seven days a week. Soft-drink and candy machines are available on the platforms, as in most Dutch train stations.

See also

• Railway stations in the Netherlands