This Train Station Has No Business Being This Good

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New York was originally called “New Amsterdam.” If only the Dutch had won, Americans could have this now!

As one of the architects who designed the station (team Arcadis Architecture NL), many thanks @notjustbikes for your analysis and video of this station. You are interested in Urbanism, but also notice details like the old-new platform canopy detail and the light bike-parking. Yea, I'll excuse the glare of the glass ;). You analyze the problem and solution very accurately and notice many details we've laboured long on to incorporate. Even the temporary station that also took serious effort to design was mentioned! Thanks and I'll definitly look into your channel, it seems like a great way to scratch my urbanism itch now and then ;).

As a Japanese person, I am genuinely impressed. It's hard for less populated regions in Japan to be doing anything other than slowly withering away, so most of Japan's highlights of public transportation are in the more densely populated areas. The mix of nature, people, and trains in Driebergen-Zeist was eye candy, thank you for the video!

Just a heads up as a Civil Engineer working for a construction company that works on Rail a lot (Strukton): These plannings where you have to do a ridiculous amount in a ridiculous sparse amount of time are par for the course in Rail construction in the Netherlands. ProRail has a contract with NS where the rail is only allowed to be offline for a (very) limited amount of time per year. Dutch Rail construction is one of the most efficient, most time constraint and often most innovative construction possible. I love it.

This really just solidifies that there's no excuse for miserably bad public transit in my city of 1 million people. Absolutely incredible video

American structural engineer here. Love this! The exposed structure of the train station is really elegant. My great-grandparents are from the Netherlands. So refreshing to see good urban infrastructure. I’d definitely like this to be in the US too. Wish my taxes actually went towards infrastructure like this in the US…

I'm a Dutch architectural engineer and remember having visited this place during the renovation as an educational trip. BAM, the contractor company that got hired to tackle the project, shared some insights into the planning of the project.
The hardest part was closing the station for as little time as possible, so they came up with the idea of preparing the train platforms as one solid piece. Which was unfeasible, so they constructed a system where they were slowly building parts of the platforms every day, and slowly wedged the finished part into its place. Whenever a bit of the platform was settled, they would start connecting other construction parts that would slide along, but would not be able to be connected and finished till it was completely done.
The entire project took engineers over a decade, and the company had to build a temporary office next to it, where the engineers just worked from during its duration, being able to overlook their brainchild. The contractor company also came up with other new building techniques during this project, which they still apply in ongoing projects.

I was part of the projectteam of ProRail and am still very proud of the train station and bus station we build! Thanks for the great video.

"There are J, J bus platforms" Had me laughing uncontrollably

Even as someone who isn't knowledgeable in the subject, I can immediately feel how safe and inviting this space is. It's not so clean and high-tech that it feels sterile, rather its homey and almost alluring. A space that you don't mind wandering to even if just for a walk and no other reason. Would be great to see more of this in future infrastructure everywhere in general.

With your keen eye on detail, you make this station seem like the best in the world. To me, this was already the case before the reconstruction as my grandpa always took me here to watch trains. This must have been the holy place that inspired me to become a train driver many years later. I hated to see it being demolished, but indeed it is a huge improvement and I am so happy to see the original canopy has returned :-)

Great video. I'm a Canadian who has been living in the Netherlands for the last 30 years. I still thoroughly enjoy the great infrastructure, especially for biking. I don't think I would want to live anywhere else because of this. One additional thing. The NS publishes great hiking routes that start at the Driebergen-Zeist station so that you can come by train, hike, and then go back by train.

Man, the social safety aspect deserves its own video. So important, and I was surprised (though I guess I shouldn't be) that the Dutch were way ahead of us in this area, too.

Mobility planner in Lyon, France here. As usual, great video. However, maybe the lack of buildings around the station is on purpose. Construction is the 3rd biggest emmissions sector in Europe so new builds should be avoided unless absolutely nécessary. On top of that, thé station is historical, and the wooded areas seem To have been there for a long time, so its likely they have ecosystems that need to be preserved. I love that they didnt cut down the natural areas To build more stuff just because theres a train station into it...urban sprawl is one of the major causes at the source of climate change

They pulled off the downtime build in 16 days!? Woah. I'm no engineer, but watching that time-lapse was inspiring. It's amazing what humanity can achieve when we all work together as a team. This station is better than anything you'll find here in the UK too haha.

I truly believe people who can admire train stations could achieve world peace.

Another thing that is great about this station: the NS has a number of hikes on their website where you can walk from one train station to another. They are called an “NS Wandeling”.
There is one that starts at Driebergen-Zeist and goes to the next station (Maarn). You walk through a beautiful piece of forest, it takes about three hours (15 km). Walked it a few weeks ago and I can recommend it!
NS doesn’t need to offer these hiking routes, but they do. And that’s something deserving of a shout-out!

Hi Jason, I'm a 72 yr old and a major admirer of your work. I am very familiar with the Netherlands having lived in Amsterdam during the 1970s. Where I got around on a bicycle, tram and bus -never considered owning a car, I was born and brought up in ''old London" and like you have lived and worked in major cities in many countries- including mainland China . When i came back to the States in 2015 from 8 years in China. i had gotten used to Chinese cities filled with people up until midnight and beyond - I returned to Seattle and it was ghostly at night except for a few scattered neighborhoods. Seattle's Metro bus system ( considered one of the better systems in N.America), is based on the familiar 'Spoke and Wheel Approach,' is great during Mon-Fri commuting - However, during off peak hours, its a whole different story - in some cases 20-30 minute waits. Its even worse in suburbia. I now own a small 18 year old pick up truck. But, I hate having to drive 2 miles from my small apartment to buy basic supplies - On some days i ride my bike to the supermarket - having nearly been nearly hit by 'idiots in monster trucks,' and odd stares, while I continue to lock my bike up next to steel gate at the market. no bike racks and like many shopping areas the parking lot is twice the size of the supermarket . i continue to ride my bike in protest to the ugly pick up truck and SUV mentality that now exits on N.American roads . . Its odd to me how North Americans see biking as a recreational sport - It seem to this "old Geezer. " To ride a bike in may North American cities - The bike as to cost over $3K- Then you have to have spend another few hundred bucks on the right clothing- a bike rack for your SUV and so on . When I watch your Amsterdam videos - They bring back fond memories . I plan to visit Amsterdam next year - and you never know I might once again fall in love with a city that cares a lot more about people than cars - and it would nice to never go back to N. America and its 1950s car centric society.

I have quite a bit of knowledge about this station since my sister in law was part of the project on the municipal side. There are good reasons why there is little development on and around the station. They can be summarized as follows: 1. it is surrounded by naturally and historically significant areas that are to be preserved. 2. it is meant to connect the regional populations to the larger cities on the Rhijnspoorweg, not to invite city dwellers to work in the rurality. 3. The renovation was started not to make the train station better per se, but to alleviate the area's position as a chokepoint for intercity trains that got stuck behind sprinters as well as for car traffic moving to and from the highway and between the more rural localities.
1.
To begin with, the station is situated at the northern edge of an estate (de Reehorst) comprised of two older historical estates. Both situated along the culturally and historically significant "Stichtse Lustwarande". A "line" of estates where the old nobility and higher middle class would have their outside-the-city homes, many of which have been granted to hospitals, typhoid recovery places, elderly care and asylums for the mentally infirm and others have now become educational or office locations. This makes the south side of the tracks already unfit for large scale development in order to keep the rural/natural character and historical value, while it already has a unique distinct market position on the business use market. On the north and eastern side, most of the land is part of the national forests of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug and thus count as protected nature, including most of the Landgoed Heidestein (another estate). In the westward direction, it runs into more historical estates; Rijnwijck and Wulperhorst. There really isn't much development possible that wouldn't take big chunks of historically, culturally and ecologically significant areas. The area as it is now also separates the local identities of Zeist and Driebergen, a character that the local population is not keen to do damage by connecting the two towns with a "city center". This also distinguishes it from something like Kampen zuid, where the development of the area was already slated to happen as part of a natural expansion of the town. There is of course some development planned, but it won't take the shape of a massive-as-possible urbanized area.
2.
The station is mostly meant to service a regional population to go into the city of Utrecht and further into the Randstad or to any of the towns on the Rhijnspoorweg between Utrecht and Arnhem. Given the cost and hassle of using cars to enter big cities, the station is already well-used by commuters. Insofar people from the cities come to this station, they usually come for the natural environment; to walk or cycle in the forests. Therefore, putting the forests further out would be counter-productive. Also, don't underestimate how many rural population the station serves. People come from all the way in Wijk bij Duurstede. It is indeed a true regional hub already.
3.
The renovations where started because of the imminent need to alleviate 2 traffic choke points: The rail traffic one where intercities between Arnhem and Utrecht would routinely get stuck behind the sprinters. And the road traffic one where the N225 connection to the A12 highway was strongly congested in part due to the crossing you mentioned in the first part of the video, causing "sluipverkeer" throughout the smaller roads and neighborhoods causing safety issues. This meant that the budget for the renovation far exceeds what would normally be available since many different budgets could be drawn from, municipal, railway, provincial and national (through Rijkswaterstaat). In a sense, the greatness of this renovation follow from the multimodal issues that preceded it. Don't be discouraged though, the solution is well-documented and we will see the lessons learned return in the designs of new stations and renovations of existing ones for decades!

Man, your excitement in the intro made me tear up. Myself being from a highly corrupted country, whenever I go abroad to a place that has railway/metro and organized infrastructure I get overwhelmed with similar joy.

NJB, you are doing important work. People in North America are (gradually) learning. Please don't stop doing what you do.

Besides the infrastructure itself, the most impressive thing about Dutch projects has to be the construction time. I've seen these timelapses on UAclips my whole life, and it's amazing each time. Meanwhile it took my city in the US about 2 years to build a single glorified tram platform in a busy area.

So I was checking your description and noticed your last link. The title of that video actually explains why there is no development going on around Drievergen - Zeist. It is a "Landgoed Station" (Estate station). It is situated in a area (probably with historic significance for either country or region) where you can't just "build a neighborhood". Many people will come to that station specifically because it is situated in the middle of one of the Netherland's bigger nature areas (Gooi, Eemland em Vechtstreek). That is why it has 6 trains an hour both directions, has a big bike parking with e-bikes for rental. It offers direct bike access to het Gooische and Hilversumse bos, de Hoge en Lage Vuursche. De Gooische, Ankeveense, 'S-gravenlandse and Vechtse plassen. Several smaller woods, small towns. Some of the best cycle routes to Utrecht, Hilversum and Amsterdam. You don't want neighborhoods there.

Crying here in the UK as our government cancels high speed rail projects, plans for ULEZ zones, Low traffic neighbourhoods and 20mph urban speed restrictions. All because they held on to a seat in a by-election and are scared of the motorist lobby

I've watched this 17 times and I can say, this is definitely a certified not just bikes classic

I live in Australia and have been for 50 years. My parents used to live in Doorn, about 5 km east of Driebergen. So as a young man I used that railway station on a regular basis from the mid sixties to the early seventies.
Many thanks for this video. The place truly looks fantastic. Brought about good memories. It’s a gorgeous district.

Thanks for mentioning cross platform transfers. They're not only for your train connection. In fact, cross platform transfers are very common. One other trick used by NS is making distances between stations exactly half an hour of train travel apart, so that you can switch trains both ways without waiting for your connection at many stations.

One thing that should be added about this station, the old re-used pillars, which were a big hassle to keep in the modern setup, due to them being very old and not the best quality, actually have World War 2 bullet holes in them. The story goes the germans shot at a plane that flew over the station one time.
So if you are standing there, waiting for your train, you can take a minute and spot the bullet holes, which I think is pretty kool! (small hint, they are on the side heading towards Utrecht)

Hello! I used to reside near that area and had friends who lived in the houses you mentioned, including near the car dealership. An interesting challenge in that area is that the municipal boundary between Zeist and Driebergen cuts through those homes. This means a house might be in Driebergen while its neighboring house could be in Zeist. This poses challenges for construction, as the building regulations differ between the two towns. While the Netherlands boasts many top-tier infrastructure projects, there's certainly room for improvement at the local government level, especially when multiple municipalities are involved!

Compared to some of the stations I use most often in the UK such as Edinburgh Waverley,Haymarket and Darlington,this is a breath of fresh air. Not just because it has way more cycle parking and to a higher standard,but the connections have been so well planned too. I will keep these designs in mind for future consultations as it makes it the new gold standard for me. Oh yes,and Utrect Centraal is great too

I've watched this J times to pay homage to the abundant infrastructure.

Love how you get excited about great planning. I think people rarely understand how much work it takes for things to operate smoothly. Engineers are rockstars! Keep up the good work.

I absolutely loved you talk so happy about a train station. So simple in most peoples eyes, yet you make it seem like it could be from the king himself, really makes me appreciate trainstations more. I didnt even know about the history of the train station and I have lived in the netherlands my whole life lol😂😅

15:11 When I went on a trip to the netherlands a year ago, I planned to have 20+ Minutes for each transfer. Picture me surprised when I see the previous train to the one I was planning to take on the opposite side of the platform I'm standing on. I arrived at my destination an hour early and thats for an 8 hour trip across borders and with more than 4 transfers!

I lived in Amsterdam for 4 years at the turn of the century (this one!). I had friends in Zeist and often traveled there by train. I had a pleasant memory jolt when you showed the old station; I remember it well. Thank you for your videos. I really enjoyed my time in the Netherlands and it always brings a smile to my face when you show or talk about places that I am familiar with. Such a great well-thought-out country. No space is wasted there and the Dutch can build anything out of bricks and sand. Danje wel.

I lived in Driebergen when this started, so I've lived though the old, the temporary and the new train station. It was pretty cool to see the progress and to see the end result come to life!
I agree that the surrounding area needs to be redeveloped. The nature / park is fine as is and representative of the greater Driebergen area, but the old houses and low density commercial buildings deserve some attention.

Watching this I realised how spoiled I am as a Dutch person. I visit this station only sporadically, and the first time I visited since the revamp I was like "hmm, is it me or did they revamp the station, 'cause it looks better than last year", and carried on with my day like nothing happened.

I'm Dutch, have always been very interested in our railways and been working at ProRail for almost fifteen years now, but I never heard the coffee family story before. Thanks for teaching something nice every video!

I think you ought to visit the south of The Netherlands sometimes. Take the fast train from Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Breda and transfer to Breda-Tilburg-Eindhoven. Each of these stations is unique (and all recently renovated) - from the Rotterdam "kapsalon" metal facade to the Breda station which has an indoors bus station at platform level and a P+R on the roof, to Tilburg with a library and food hall built in former train maintenance buildings, to Eindhoven where all intercity trains are same-platform transfers, and the bus station goes up to "L" (not to mention the surrounding areas - in Breda they removed a parking garage to reinstate the old canal which has no other function than to just look nice).

This channel makes me appreciate so many things I took for granted and it genuinely makes me appreciate my life better.
Like at 11:53. The nice entry, a few curves, a bunch of pallet wood slapped to the side and those bits that stick out at irregular intervals to break up the visual monotony. So many places around the world a building with this function would just be a concrete box with holes.

You should have a website with a map & markers for all the stations & locations you have reviewed, so people can choose the videos from there and you feel engaged to review all the stations in the world ^_^

As a railway engineer i absolutely agree that this Station is beautiful

Love the appreciation the classic Dutch tradition of "Not caring about where you can and cannot park your bike" gets.

I’ve been following your channel for a long time and it’s been my educational source for things urban transport infrastructure.
Here in Berlin, they are trying to turn the clock back: removing bicycle lanes, stopping or cancelling all new bicycle lane construction, making existing leaves narrower where they had been broadened.
It would be great if you would cover this in some form in one of your videos. It may be come over to Berlin and hold a talk or two.

Several years ago the level crossing in the city of Sremska Mitrovica (Serbia) was reconstructed just like the one in the video - including the half-drop path for cyclists and pedestrians 😊

I live in The Netherlands and am pretty happy to be here, but you take it to a whole other level with your enthousiasm. I love it. It inspires me. Thanks. I hadn't realised that Driebergen-Zeist station had been upgraded. Last time I was there was about 15 years ago, and it wasn't great then. Looks great now.

i remember passing the driebergen-zeist station by train during the construction phase a couple of times. and i was really wondering what the hell they are doing there. It looked like they wanted to build a particle accelerator or something. everything was digged open, big cranes, flashlights and randomly placed concrete islands and disconnected steel beams as far as you could see.
This is actually the first time i see the finished project. looks like it turned out to be not too bad.

For years I passed trough this station while riding my bike to school and I have witnessed the whole renovation first hand. The progress that was made is incredible and the new station has been a masive improvement. In my eyes the only large mistake that was made is how theres no clear crossing on the bikepath between the bike garage and the stairs creating some really close calls between crossing pedestrians and cyclists that are speeding down into the tunnel.

As a Dutchmen I think the area around the station DZ is probably dedicated nature. Not all stations need to have a build-up area around it. Even if it would be convenient.

Train station as "destination" is kind of a neat idea. I haven't been back in several years but the VIA rail station in Quebec City (Gare du Palais) used to have a coffee shop/sandwich joint in it whose food and coffee were so good, it would be a decent place to just go to even if you weren't catching a train. And the interior of the station is (was) quite attractive too, worth visiting. I hope it's still like that. I grew up in Montreal, went to school in Fake London, worked in Toronto for 25 years and now live in Ottawa. Now that I am older, I am even more beginning to miss good train service in my life. More and more I hate driving, and I can see a time when I won't want to drive anywhere at all, which means that my movement options will be limited. Aside from all the other good reasons not to depend on cars, a car-based culture is horrible for seniors.

As a Dutch person who had never been to Driebergen-Zeist a dream came true last year when I had to go there by train last year. Truly a bucket list event for all of us Dutchies

It would be cool if you did a video examining just how close people can comfortably live to a train rails. I know there's a track in Japan that runs right through a building, but I think making more people aware of how to design transit-oriented housing would be a good topic.

I had something similar when I had internships earlier this year, I biked for 2 minutes to my station, have a direct connection with Amsterdam Amstel, I had to be at Bijlmer ArenA because that station was closest but no train would go directly there, but the genius thing about Amstel is that on the same platform you have a railway and a metro, so I go by metro to Bijlmer and then had a 4 minute walk from there. The planning is genius and I am really happy about that, made stuff a lot more doable

I literally live in Zeist, so to see our train station highlighted and praised by you is nice to see. Before the transformation it was a real traffic jam (as you point out), during the construction it was even worse..... but now it is truly an ideal small train station that doesn't hold up any traffic.

As somebody who uses this train station on a weekly basis it is very gratifying to see a huge UAclips channel like this dedicate an entire video to it!

I used to live in Zeist between 2010-2015 and experienced the horrible old design in all that time. I recently moved close to Zeist and was amazed by the redesign. It is executed so well. Thanks for the video!

It's always inspiring to see well-designed infrastructure. You put in the same materials as a shitty place, but through careful design and planning you end up with something much more valuable.

The Rhijnspoorweg (Rhine Railway, using the old Dutch spelling for the river Rhine) was constructed between 1843 & 1856 Between Amsterdam Weesperpoort (It's old terminal station wich was on the sight of what is now the intersection of Mauritskade & Wibautstraat under wich the Metro now runs) and Emmerich in Germany via Utrecht & Arnhem by the NRS (Nederlandse Rhijnspoorweg Maatschappij/Dutch Rhine Railway Company).
When the railway was envisaged, the entire point was getting goods trains from the coal mines in the Rhur area to what was then the main harbour in Amsterdam and then get precious goods back to the big cities in Western Germany and also express traffic wich meant they preffered a railway that was as straight as possible.
Local passenger transport was of secondary importance and it was therefore not important to have stations close to villages along the way (There used to be a competing railway line to Zeist that branched off at Bilthoven wich closed to passengers in 1941 and was broken up in 1972).
The Rhine Railway later also build a branch to The Hauge via Gouda (They first constructed what would become The Hauges Central Station), the branch from Gouda to Rotterdam (with it's own Delftsche Poort station that is now gone too) and the odd single track line between Woerden - Alphen a/d Rijn and my hometown of Leiden.
The original line between Amsterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem and connecting onwards to Düsseldorf is to this day the mainline used by ICE trains in The Netherlands.

I got the chance to live in Netherlands for a semester during my exchange. I have to say I am really impressed at how nice every station is, even one that is seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
I am also impressed at how synced the schedule of buses and trains on GMaps, it really do helps.

It's funny how much excited and amazed you are at something most of us take for granted (me included) we always complain about the train being late or cancelled xD but here you are excitingly covering it in a whole near 18 minutes of video.

I think a lot of Dutch people, (like me) like this channel because sometimes it takes someone from the outside to make you see what's in front of you the whole time. This channel shows me parts of the Netherlands I either never visited, or just never paid much attention to when I did. Not Just Bikes turns my everyday experience into a 'tourist destination ' ;)

Cross-platform transfers are fantastic! There are a few of them out there, for sure. Because the NS knows what routes people travel, they can adjust their schedules to match and make large scale transfers (where a lot of people transfer from the same train to the same train) as painless as possible. Often they will even wait if the arriving train is a few minutes delayed!

They have also recently rebuild the Ede-Wageningen train station, which is two stops from this one. There are lots of houses being build surrounding the station, which I think is due to it's location between Utrecht and Arnhem and the convenience of being able to hop on a train whenever you want.

"Eerst een knelpunt, nu een knooppunt." Pretty much sums it up really, they've done a fantastic job.

With every video you produce, my desire to emigrate from the USA to the Netherlands increases. You are a lucky guy!

I really like this video because it shows how the Netherlands takes a national approach to good public transit, not just Amsterdam. It shows that good infrastructure is possible on a national level, not just in a city or town.

It's nice to see how hospitable such a small train station is. There's so many places to sit down and relax.

Hello Not Just Bikes. I've been into your videos for some time now. Because of this, I began to notice how much good planning is lacking in many cities. I live in Gdańsk - it's a Dutch city in Poland (really, the city was in the Hanseatic League and there are many souvenirs left from it). I have the impression that the city copes well with public transport, but there are still too few bicycle paths. I say this because I would really like to see your episode about Gdańsk.

Cross-platform transfers are often actually that difficult to implement but are extremely positive for users.
Railways generally run using the designations UP (meaning towards the main central station in the region) and DOWN (away from the main central station in the region). If you have 4 tracks (known as Quad Track), generally they either run as different sectors which don't interract with one another (so that disruptions on one line don't affect another), or as Express (only stops at key stations) and Suburban/Local (stopping at all or most stations). In the second version you can arrange the tracks to run as three options:
-run the express tracks on the outside of the stopping tracks UPx-UP-DOWN-DOWNx
-in the centre between the stopping tracks UP-UPx-DOWNx-DOWN
-as two separate pairs of tracks UP-DOWN-UPx-DOWNx
In the case where two (or more) different train lines meet and run through a station, as in @NotJustBikes example in Utrecht, to achieve a cross-platform transfer for a passenger from Amsterdam Zuid to the other line all you had to do is build the UP line from Amsterdam Zuid to cross under/over the DOWN line of the Utrecht line at their junction (point where to lines join/split) and then it will have to cross under/over the DOWN line again after the station (or it's partner line will have to cross under/over the same line and head in another direction).

Amazing video. Yet again. Great job! I’ve been impressed by this station the moment it was completed. You always seem to make a video of a project I happen to also follow. Love love love. Thank you very much!

Several years ago my wife and I took the train from Tucson, AZ to Chicago. First it was 2 hours late which, we found out was normal. Seconed that train had to sideline to let a freight train through since it had the right of way. What should have taken about 3 days took over a week. Needless to say we flew back to Tucson. It's so nice to see how train transportation can work.

I live in Zeist and it is so interesting to watch you telling about a thing that is so embedded in my day to day life. When I was younger, I sometimes went on an early sunday morning cycling trip with my father and we always stopped at Driebergen-Zeist to watch the trains go by. I loved the part in the video where you showed the old station. Brought back such good memories :)
It's interesting that you tell about the good connection between Utrecht Centraal and Driebergen-Zeist. There is only one problem for me at least. When I want to go to UC I take a bus, which is faster. It's around 8 mins to to the bus -> transfer/walking time (10 mins) -> train to UC (from DZ) 8-12 mins (depending on fast or slow train). When I take the bus it's the same walking time + 20 mins to UC directly.
So even though the station is close to my home, the bus takes me to UC faster :(

I think the traffic light defaulting to green at 11:30 is actually to protect cyclists that have to much speed racing across the intersection without cars having time to react to the cyclists. I know how fun it is to race through with such speed. For everyone's safety it's the best the cyclists know by default, that they can't blindly race across the intersection expecting cars to stop. There is a car advantage sure, but as a Dutchman who works for ProRail and doesn't drive a car, I can say its the safest solution. At least one that wouldn't bloat an already expensvie but magnificent project.

I think the low development of the area is by design. You said it yourself; there's a huge forested area around the station, it's very possible that the city doesn't want to spoil that natural beauty. I imagine the vacant lots will be filled up, but not much real development will happen outside of that.
But as always, a great episode and very topical since we cycled through it yesterday as a starting/finishing point for a cycling route through the woods. It's a great little station and should be a benchmark for any future projects.

Even before the renovation, Driebergen-Zeist was a joy to visit. I had a friend who used to live in Zeist, and I always preferred to walk from the train station to his house, because of the beautiful surroundings.

I live only about a kilometer from this station and use it fairly regularly. It has been a really big improvement from the previous station. The underground bycicle parking is especially great seeing how it is located directly underneath the little station square and it takes you like a minute to get from your bike to the platform. It is very popular as well as it is often almost full during the weekdays. And as someone who also occasionally drives by it by car, the removal of the level crossing has also been a godsent!

Completely agree on the cross platform transfer. It's very common here in Japan even in rural areas where the slower local trains are waiting for the faster express trains to pass. So you get on the quicker express train first to your nearest express stop before your own smaller station. The local train is usually there and you just have to walk to the other side of the platform to get in. Train starts moving a minute after. So convenient!

Jason, this was a masterpiece. You're so good at this! Loved the writing, the jokes, the beautiful camerawork, the research, the balance, the enthusiasm and of course the subject matter. This should win awards. 💚💚💚

I live in Detroit Michigan and I have to say that this video makes me want to go visit a small train station in a forest in the Netherlands! Full disclosure, when my family landed in the Netherlands in 1958 after traveling from Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies) our first stop was a tiny vacation rental house in Driebergen that was appropriated for us by the Dutch Government. I was only 2 and don't recall any of that but I do have some lovely old pictures of that time. The Driebergen-Zeist train station gives me another reason to visit the area if I ever have the opportunity to go back to the Netherlands. Thanks for another great video!

Wow they dug out the whole place, what a vision they had, and perfectly done! Love NL

This style of train station has become quite common the last couple of years and it's certainly nice, but I still miss the old types of staions a bit. They were not as convenient and efficient perhaps, but I loved them. Luckily we still have some of those old/pretty stations such as Haarlem and Den Haag Holland Spoor

That level crossing issue reminds me of many an intersection in Victoria before the level crossing removal project kicked in. Hopefully they can keep up the infrastructure work on the public transport and maybe we can have nice stations like these throughout the train lines too :):)
Love this video, just like all the others. Keep them coming :):)

Mind blowing that one of my favourite new channels does a video on my hometown train station. As a local I can tell you that the redesign is loved by everyone that I know that lives in Zeist. FYI I believe that the princenhof building was there before the redesign and therefore the entrance was already there. There was a bike lane there before though to the old bicycle parking area on the Zeist side if I remember correctly.

Travelling in The Netherlands some years ago, I was talking with a local inhabitant. She was surprised when I said how 'civilised' we found the country. Certainly the Dutch urban environment is a very humane place to be.

Bicycle Dutch has a great article and video about Driebergen-Zeist, if you'd like to learn more:
bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/a-public-transport-hub-in-the-forest-station-driebergen-zeist/
Video: uaclips.com/video/sXSIFSg6l_I/відео.html
There are also lots of links in the description, as usual.

Have you ever been to Houten? It's a town southeast of Utrecht, and it has one ring-road for cars and the rest of the town has cycling paths as "arterial roads." Cars are allowed in, but they're stowed away and practically can only be used to park by your own house, or leave the town. I feel like it would make a fantastic video; even I was blown away by it, and I've lived in the country for 21 years since my birth :)

We visited the construction site of this station back when I took an excursion to the Netherlands with my university. Thanks for showing the finished station.
It has been very impressive even during the reconstruction. They even build a temporary covered footbridge with covered staircases and elevators (if I remember correctly). If I compare that to construction sites here in Austria it's just sad.

stations are being rebuild like this quite a lot in the netherlands. I am from a town called Nijverdal myself. We once had an open railroad crossing like most towns but we now have a tunnel with a railroad and roadway underneath the town. This significantly reduced heavy traffic inside of the town and you cannot really hear the trains either because of the tracks being underneath the city. If you have the chance to ever visit the east then try the zwolle/enschede railroad line:)

I live nearby and love this station so much! I'd forgotten just how bad it was before (so thanks for including the old footage) but remember being completely blown away when I cycled there to take my first train post-lockdown in 2020

Great vid. A friend who works for ProRail explained to me why at DZ you don’t have more development. Apparently it has been a discussion for nearly a decade. The problem is that the area falls under both Zeist and Utrechtse Heuvelrug, so they have to come to an agreement on whatever gets put in. The next problem is that it is currently zoned industrial, so that would have to be changed. Third of all, this area has restrictions on how much can be developed in order to maintain a certain amount of nature, so this would also have to be approved. Similarly, height restrictions mean that you’d be unlikely to get approval to build above three stories. Add on to that the high costs of construction in the Netherlands at the moment and you end up with it being a very unattractive project for a developer. The municipality would basically have to give them the land for free to even spark their interest.

8:14 this really struck home with me. I live near the Interurban Trail in Seattle, and while it's excellent bike infrastructure by NA standards, a lot of it is just going past the backs of businesses and often without a paved connection to them - you have to cut through dirt paths next to dumpsters to get to the parking lot and the main entrance.

I’ve lived in Zeist my whole life, I remember the old station. I liked the new design, but I took it for granted too much. Cool to hear you talk about it!!

Today in Israel is Yom Kippur, where cars aren't allowed on the roads and everyone goes out in bikes and drives on the highways, and while I think tel aviv is very well designed for pedestrians and bikes, I went today randomly to this one area near the central bus station, with this giant ramp above the street which makes the area feel very claustrophobic and dark, and also turned this area into a hotbed of lots of crime. Seeing social safety be so prioritized in the Netherlands seems so amazing, I really hope that these Dutch designs would be applied everywhere else in the world.

You should do an in-depth review of how Tokyo Metro made the final switch to the new Ginza Line platform in Shibuya over just THREE DAYS! I've seen some video footage of literally thousands of workers making the final track change. Wild stuff.

I've been following you for a while and I learned so much about my own country while doing so. My closest station is also Amsterdam Zuid. It would be cool if you had some kind of in person meet up planned at some point!

I love that old footage of the station! In the UK, train fans used to have the derogatory name of "anoraks" due to them often standing out in all weather wearing raincoats to record trains as they went by. But without them, and their diligent work, we wouldn't have the archive footage we have now! I have to say thank you to all of you, and I hope more people become train fans and record more of this sort of thing in the future!

You should do a video about Breda Central station. It is not by any means a perfect station but its really interresting. You can park your car on the roof of the station by driving up trough the trains and busses and the busplatforms go all the way up to W. You’ve also got 4 bikeparkings, two outside, one in the station and one underground. And the architecture will amaze you for sure!

THANK YOU for making a video about this station! I sometimes transfer here from train to bus to visit a friend, and next time I'll be looking around even more closely!
When waiting for the bus, the stone border with the flat concrete top (visible at 8:58) offers a place to sit with the feet hanging freely. Don't know if this is an intended use, but I wanted to mention it.
It's surprising how quick you forget that a place like this is constructed and what the old situation was like, and I wasn't aware the makeover was so recent, even though I know I have visited the same station before 2020.

There are a lot of conference centers in the forrests around Driebergen-Zeist. Thats why it is an important mobilityhub. You take one of the many small buses for the last mile. I used to go there regularly years ago when there was the old treinstation. Next week I’ll go there by train for another conference and I’m looking forward to see the new trainstation.