The time is near: on Sunday 13 July, Groningen’s revamped Main Station will officially open its doors! This large-scale transformation of the largest station in the Northern Netherlands will bring important changes for train passengers. What exactly does this mean for your journey?
More trains and direct connections
From 13 July, you can count on more trains and more efficient connections. One of the biggest changes is the linking of train lines:
- Between Sauwerd and Zuidbroek, and thus also between the Europapark, Hoofdstation and Noorderstation stadiums, a train will soon run every 15 minutes. This will make travelling within the city a lot faster and easier.
- The local train from Bad Nieuweschans will soon continue directly to Eemshaven, and that every half hour. Groningen will thus become an intermediate station, no longer an end station.
- The same goes for the train from Veendam: it will continue to Delfzijl in one go.
What does this mean for transfers?
The new timetable causes a few important changes when changing trains:
- For passengers from Leeuwarden:
- Good news! Are you coming by train from Leeuwarden? Then you will soon no longer necessarily have to go to the Main Station if your destination is Groningen Europapark (e.g. for students going to school at Euroborg). Your train will continue directly to Europapark, saving you a transfer.
- In the past, you had to get off at the Hoofdstation and possibly catch another train or bus to get to Europapark. That will soon be a thing of the past.
- For travellers who want to transfer to an NS Intercity at the Main Station:
- If you are coming from Arriva areas (such as Veendam, Bad Nieuweschans, Eemshaven) and want to travel on with an NS Intercity (e.g. to the Randstad), there are differences per destination.
- Direction Delfzijl: Arriva trains to Delfzijl will soon connect less well with NS Intercity trains at the main station. This means you may have to wait longer for your transfer.
- Eemshaven direction: For this direction, the fast transfer to NS’ Intercity trains at the Main Station will be retained.
Why is this so? Because there are now many more trains (that quarter-hourly service and through connections), it is impossible to have all trains connect perfectly with all NS Intercity trains. So planners have had to make choices to optimise overall journey time and efficiency for as many passengers as possible.
Extra long journeys and international connections
During rush hour, local trains from Leeuwarden continue directly as express trains to Winschoten. So you can get from Leeuwarden to Winschoten in just 75 minutes without changing trains.
An exciting development is the future connection to Germany: once the trains to Leer are running again (late 2025 or early 2026), the local train from Leeuwarden will continue to Leer as an express train once an hour, seven days a week. This opens new doors for journeys to eastern Groningen and Germany. A second express train to Winschoten will be added during rush hour.
With these adjustments, travelling to, from and within Groningen will become a lot easier and faster.
Photo Stella Dekker
