The Amsterdam–Schiphol railway (also known as the ''Westtak Ringspoorbaan'') is an important 17 kilometre long

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

that connects

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

with

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport (, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands, and is one of the major hubs for the SkyTeam airline alliance. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipal ...

, and allows trains to continue to

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, and

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

History

The railway was opened by the

Nederlandse Spoorwegen (, , NS ) is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands. It is a Dutch state-owned company founded in 1938. The rail infrastructure is maintained by network manager ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003. Freight operato ...

on 1 June 1986. The line prompted the opening of three new stations Amsterdam Sloterdijk, Amsterdam De Vlugtlaan and Amsterdam Lelylaan. A fourth station, Amsterdam Aletta Jacobslaan, was planned but it was never opened; today, the

Metro Metro may refer to: Geography * Metro City (Indonesia), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban area with high ...

station Henk Sneevlietweg is situated on the proposed site. In 1997 the

line 50 opened, running parallel with the line between Isolatorweg (between Amsterdam Centraal and Sloterdijk) and Henk Sneevlietweg (south of Amsterdam Lelylaan). De Vlugtlaan station was closed in 2000 as part of the project to open the Hemboog which would link Schiphol with

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

Route

The Amsterdam-Schiphol line leaves

Amsterdam Centraal Amsterdam Centraal station ( ; abbreviation: Asd) is the largest railway station in Amsterdam, North Holland, the Netherlands. A major international railway hub, it is used by 192,000 passengers a day, making it the second busiest railway stati ...

in a westerly direction. It passes Zaanstraat

depot Depot may refer to: Places * Depot, Poland, a village * Depot Glacier (disambiguation) * Depot Island (disambiguation) * Depot Nunatak * Depot Peak Brands and enterprises * Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in Chicago, United States * Of ...

from Amsterdam Centraal, where the Oude Lijn towards

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

diverges. Shortly afterwards the freight-only

branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

to Westhaven also diverges. out of Amsterdam Centraal, the metro line starts at Isolatorweg, running parallel to the Schiphol railway for . The railway and metro both turn toward the south before reaching the bi-level Amsterdam Sloterdijk station. Here, the platforms on the line to Schiphol and the metro platforms are above the bottom lines for

and

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan ...

. South of the station, the Hemboog with the line from Zaandam joins, passing through the former Amsterdam De Vlugtlaan station, which is now served only by the metro. after Amsterdam Lelylaan station, the metro line branches off to the east towards Amsterdam Zuid, while the line towards Schiphol branches off to the west, where it joins the Weesp–Leiden railway (also known as the original ''Schiphollijn'') coming from Amsterdam Zuid. For the line runs in the

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

of the A4 motorway, before diving into the tunnel to

Schiphol Airport railway station Schiphol Airport station is a major passenger railway station in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands, beneath the terminal complex of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, operated by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen. The station's six platforms are accessible via twel ...

, located under the

airport terminal An airport terminal is a main building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from an Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft. The buildings that provide access t ...

. From Schiphol the line continues as the Schiphollijn to

Services

The Amsterdam–Schiphol railway is used by the following passenger services: * International services (Amsterdam – Brussels – Paris – London; Amsterdam – Brussels – Paris) * Intercity Direct high speed services (Amsterdam – Rotterdam – Breda; Amsterdam – Rotterdam) * Intercity services (Amsterdam – Dordrecht – Vlissingen; Lelystad – Den Haag Centraal; Groningen – Den Haag Centraal) * Local services (Hoorn – Hoofddorp; Utrecht – Den Haag Centraal; Amersfoort Vathorst – Hoofddorp)

Types

A wide variety of trains can be found regularly on the Amsterdam–Schiphol railway: *

British Rail Class 374 The British Rail Class 374, also referred to as the Eurostar e320, is a type of electric multiple unit passenger train used on Eurostar services through the Channel Tunnel to serve destinations beyond the core routes to Paris and Brussels. Pass ...

on the Amsterdam – London

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The service is operated by the Eurostar Group which was formed from the merger of Eurostar, ...

service *

Thalys PBA Thalys (French: ) was a brand name used for high-speed train services between Paris Gare du Nord and both Amsterdam Centraal and German cities in the Rhein-Ruhr, including Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen and Dortmund, both via ...

Thalys PBKA PBKA is a High-speed rail, high-speed trainset, manufactured by the French company Alstom, GEC-Alsthom, and used on the international Eurostar service. Originally built for Thalys (which later merged with Eurostar) they were intended to operate ...

on the Amsterdam – Paris

Thalys Thalys (French: ) was a brand name used for high-speed rail, high-speed train services between Paris Gare du Nord and both Amsterdam Centraal and German cities in the Rhein-Ruhr, including Aachen, Köln Hauptbahnhof, Cologne, Düsseldorf Hauptba ...

service * NS Class 186 on the Amsterdam – Breda and Amsterdam – Rotterdam Intercity Direct services * NS DD-IRM on the Amsterdam – Vlissingen and Amsterdam – Den Haag Centraal services * NS Sprinter on the Hoorn – Hoofddorp service between Amsterdam Sloterdijk and Schiphol Airport * NID/DDZ on the Amsterdam – Vlissingen; Amsterdam – Den Haag Centraal; Hoorn – Hoofddorp services * SLT on the Hoofdorp – Hoorn and Amersfoort Vathorst – Hoofddorp services {{DEFAULTSORT:Amsterdam-Schiphol railway Railway lines in the Netherlands Railway lines opened in 1986 1986 establishments in the Netherlands Railway lines in North Holland Railway lines in highway medians Standard-gauge railways in the Netherlands Rail transport in Amsterdam Regional rail in the Netherlands 20th-century architecture in the Netherlands