The prices for bus, tram, and metro are likely to increase by about 4 percent in 2026. This is because public transport companies themselves are facing higher costs, for example due to wage increases.
The city and regional transport operators adjust their fares annually based on calculations by DOVA. That is the organization for clients in public transport: municipalities and provinces.
DOVA calculated that the costs for public transport companies will increase by an average of 3.86 percent this year, says director Jan van Selm to NU.nl. The carriers often adopt this increase. This has been agreed in the contracts they have concluded with provinces and municipalities.
The increase means that a ride that now costs 10 euros will cost you almost 10.40 euros next year. The price increases also apply to the train services of regional carriers such as Arriva and Keolis.
The government could put a stop to the price increases. But it is not known whether it will come to that. If the cabinet decides to keep the increases in city and regional transport limited, it must compensate the carriers for this.
DOVA’s calculations do not relate to NS prices. But this does not mean that NS tickets will not become more expensive next year. On the contrary, prices will rise even faster than in city and regional transport.
You will probably pay 12 percent more for a train ticket with NS next year, it was already clear. Here too, the government can limit that increase, as it did for 2025. But for the time being that does not seem to be the case. A final decision will be taken later this year.
The price increase of 3.86 percent for city and regional transport is slightly higher than the 3.4 percent that was added at the beginning of this year. However, the increase is much smaller than in previous years. At the time, carriers were faced with substantial cost increases due to expensive energy and substantial wage increases.
For example, prices rose by almost 12 percent at the beginning of 2024. A year earlier that was about 7 percent. The various increases mean that fares next year will be between 25 and 30 percent higher than in 2022.