Redesigning the passenger experience: How NS Dutch Railways delivers consistent information across all touchpoints

As the national railway operator of the Netherlands, NS Dutch Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) transports over a million travelers per workday, supported by their website, mobile app, and service channels. But behind this experience, the organization faced a growing challenge: content and communication were fragmented across disconnected systems, teams and touchpoints. 

Multiple CMSs were used by different departments. Information was duplicated, inconsistent and difficult to maintain, resulting in confusion for travelers, inefficiencies for staff and complexity in IT. 

To resolve this, NS launched a multi-year transformation program. Together with IBM iX and CoreMedia, the company set out to build a unified, headless content platform that could serve travelers with consistent, real-time information.

NS is consolidating content from across its ecosystem into a unified CoreMedia platform. The aim is to establish a single source of truth, so that NS.nl, the NS app, internal knowledge bases and even customer service tools can all access and deliver consistent information. 

By adopting a headless architecture, NS is enabling modular content delivery to any channel or device. In the future, trip updates, service messages, FAQs and visual media will be created once and seamlessly adapted for various formats, platforms and audiences.

With more than 1500 digital professionals spread across multiple clusters, success depended on collaboration as much as technology. NS introduced a unified content model, standardized editorial workflows and clear ownership structures across teams. 

The platform supports: 

• A centralized asset library with integrated copyright tracking 

• A cross-channel content structure with GraphQL delivery 

• AI-based translation workflows 

• Shared content for both public FAQs and internal call center systems 

• Real-time preview tools for developers and editors

NS.nl is one of the Netherlands’ highest-traffic websites. CoreMedia is connected to a static site generator, which pre-builds HTML pages for rapid delivery. This architecture ensures consistent speed and availability, even under heavy usage. It also enables phased rollouts, where legacy systems can be replaced page by page without requiring full platform shutdowns or content freezes. 

As NS moves toward a single platform serving all traveler types, CoreMedia is the foundation. It enables scale, adaptability and consistency, ensuring that every journey, from Amsterdam to Berlin, begins with connected digital experiences.