Sprinter

The Sprinter is the new light rail train. This new train replace the old “dog head” trains from 1964. The Sprinter consists of four or six carriages and has a capacity of respectively 386 and 610 places. This management wanted to create more places in this train so decided to leave out the toilets. This modification caused a lot of commotion, because if you needed to go to the toilet you had to get out of the train at the next station and catch a train later again.

Sprinter

To solve this problem, a very smart executive introduced the Travel John. The Travel John is plastic bag containing moisture absorbing substance. When asked where can you use the bag, it was suggested in the drivers compartment (you can imagine he was not very happy with this).

Travel John

The other ‘big’ problem with this train is in the winter. In 2010 75 percent of the new Sprinters were defect through the (drift) snow, that collected in the ventilation ducts and melted, causing electrical short cuts. So the NS left a lot of passengers in the cold. For the coming winter of 2011-2012, NS has taken a lot of precautions and hope that it will not happen again.

I like the sprinter, because it is a new train and still looks smart. There are a lot of seats and standing places. The train is level to the platform, so it is easily for disabled people to get in and out of the train, also it is easy to take a bicycle with you.