Just matching the Netherlands in punctuality and connections would be more than enough (using the word 'just' here does not do their rail network the justice it deserves).
Argh. I moved away but am back in NL regularly and the train service has degraded beyond all recognition for me done in comparison to 2021 or so.
Short trains, cancellation of 75% of scheduled services for random reasons, regular failures on key links (Amsterdam CS/Zuid-Schiphol, HSL-Zuid, Delft-Rotterdam etc etc) leading to widespread network disruptions.
NS wasn’t perfect before, but it sure seems that they and their evil twin, ProRail, aren’t even trying any more.
That's interesting to read. I recently visited the Netherlands on vacation and one of the things I was most impressed by was the train service. I came away from an excellent opinion of NS, but I'd probably chalk that down to my extensive experience with Portugal's own national train service which is an absolute clown show on rails.
Just matching the Netherlands in punctuality and connections would be more than enough (using the word 'just' here does not do their rail network the justice it deserves).