--- title: "Quiet zones in the Dutch railway system" author: Bob Rubbens publish_timestamp: 2026-10-30T07:58:46+01:00 state: published template: template/post.mako id: a540bdcf-9b31-45b8-b8a4-dfe4e11acb74 --- The Dutch national railway company, NS, made the indication of quiet zones in the trains confusing a couple of years ago. [Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks that](https://nos.nl/artikel/2223973-verwarrende-logo-s-in-vernieuwde-treinen-zorgen-voor-ergernis). When you see this[^ns]: ![](work.jpg) It means you can talk quietly, make phone calls, and dial into Teams meetings (ugh). When you see the following[^ns]: ![](quiet.jpg) It *really* means: be quiet. Personally, I don't mind if people make a phone call or ask their neighbour something, so long the noise doesn't last longer than a minute or so, and there is sufficient time between disturbances. Yes, sometimes there's a non-quiet car right next to the quiet zone, with only a flimsy pane of plastic glass inbetween (probably with holes in it!). Indeed if you would move there and talk loudly, the quiet zone wouldn't be quiet anymore, even though you went to the proper zone. The fact that people make that argument is a sign that the quiet zone does what it's supposed to do. Just move somewhere else if you need to talk; tough luck if your spot gets taken. Then in return, I'll mentally deal with having some people talk loudly on the other side of the plastic pane. That's life. I'd have preferred it if the NS just stuck to one type of quiet zone. Quietly talking and dialing into Teams meetings only works if there's only one person doing it. I admit it doesn't happen too often that multiple people talk or join meetings. But, when it does, it's super annoying. [^ns]: The differences are described in the section "Zones voor stilte, werken, rust en ontmoeten" at: