Nederlandse Spoorwegen
The Dutch railroad network was started by a number of private companies and the state railroads (Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen - SS). In 1911, these companies agreed on a single tariff. The first world war cut profitable foreign services, causing drastic losses. A number of private companies approached insolvency. The state decided not to allow that to happen, in view of the large external effects of the railroad network. While private railroad companies continued to exist, they were in practice largely government owned. Other European countries nationalised their railroads, leading to a full integration of the Dutch network in one company in 1938. Nederlandsche Spoorwegen, or Nederlandse Spoorwegen after a major spelling reform was known to its users simply as NS. Its first logo was a winged wheel.
During the second world war, employees of NS went on strike to block the transport of jews to death camps. In the final days of the war, locomotives and rail cars were taken to Germany, overhead lines were dismantled for the German war industry and both camps destroyed as many rail bridges as they could. NS started using a new logo in 1946. It was not carried on the trains, but used on documentation.
When private cars made inroads into traditional NS business, the company became loss-making from 1963. As part of a modernisation drive, NS adopted a new logo in 1968. In 1994 the company was made independent, losing the rail network, which became the property of ProRail. This arrangement was in accordance with economic theory at that time. Rail strikes, which had been virtually non-existant since the second world war, returned and passanger ticket prices rose rapidly. A competitor of NS failed to gain market share and gave up. As it was clear that the model of separating network and exploitation had not led to price competition in passenger transport, the government returned to its role as mandator.
| Nederlandse Spoorwegen | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Filename | UNS1 | |
| Side 1 | N.V. NEDERLANDSCHE SPOORWEGEN | |
| Side 2 | N.V. NEDERLANDSCHE SPOORWEGEN | |
| Manufacture | Copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 22.5 | |
| Weight (grams) | ||
| Notes | ||
| Source | Figleaf | |
| ||
| Filename | UNS2 | |
| Side 1 | logo (1947-1967), N.V. NEDERLANDSE SPOORWEGEN | |
| Side 2 | logo (1947-1967), N.V. NEDERLANDSE SPOORWEGEN | |
| Manufacture | Copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 22.5 | |
| Weight (grams) | 4.6 | |
| Notes | ||
| Source | Figleaf | |
| ||
| Filename | UNS3 | |
| Side 1 | logo (1968 to date), N.V. NEDERLANDSE SPOORWEGEN | |
| Side 2 | logo (1968 to date), N.V. NEDERLANDSE SPOORWEGEN | |
| Manufacture | Copper-nickel | |
| Size (mm) | 22.5 | |
| Weight (grams) | 4.6 | |
| Notes | ||
| Source | Figleaf | |