In 2050, railways will be omnipresent in Zuid-Holland, connecting even the furthest corners of the province to each other. Travelling on rail will be the backbone of the regio’s mobility system. Your journey also will no longer be about getting from A to B. Instead, mobility will be an experience of its own, no longer a subservient means towards enabling other activities. 

Thanks to a context-based approach, various modalities are used to service the types of environments where they make the most sense.

There is no longer a strict division between trams, light rail, metro, and commuter rail. The different train types have merged into one hybrid variant, which can both serve shorter and longer distances.

The private automobile has vanished from urban environments in line with the ever-increasing density of the cities that make up the Randstad. With this densification, the urban rail networks have vastly expanded and increased.

Suburbs and exurbs that are a part of the metropolitan areas of Rotterdam and The Hague, will be integrated with their transit networks. In 2050, each village in Zuid Holland will have railway access, with smaller remote hamlets connected by bus. This enables the mobility transition towards a car-light society, even in suburban and rural environments. Rail transit will have become the backbone of the transportation system in suburban and rural areas, with walking and cycling being prioritized for the first and last mile.

The interiors of 2050 have meeting rooms, working spaces, on-board restaurants, and family carriages, making it so that people can use their travel time just like how they would have used their time otherwise. This applies to railway stations too, these have become multifunctional neighbourhood hubs, where many amenities can be found.