With heavy losses expected, Dutch Railways looks for future cost savings

The state-owned Dutch railway company NS is under pressure to save €1.4bn by 2025 in order to remain solvent while keeping ticket prices at affordable levels. At the same time, aNS wants to continue investing, but this may require it to shed 2,300 jobs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

With that in mind NS held exploratory talks with the Central Works Council in hopes of reaching an agreement on how to achieve this, including the possibility of having some employees take early retirement.

As many as 2,500 employees are due to stop work in the coming five years as it is. The company's board of directors as well as its supervisory board have agreed to take a 10 percent cut of their basic salary.