[yurishimo]

It would be nice to have a couple of routes between a few major cities with nonstop service, but there are are no bypasses around the interstitial cities so those would need to be built first.

Groningen -> Amsterdam

Maastricht -> Amsterdam

Eindhoven -> Amsterdam

Nijmegen -> Amsterdam

I can only speak for myself, but a trip from Maastricht to Amsterdam is almost 2.5 hours by train for a distance of a smidge over 200km. This is mainly due to all of the stops along the way to pick up riders in every major city between the two.

Currently, our trains never go faster than 160km/h if the onboard screens are to be trusted.

[jeroenhd]

There are a few tracks that can go faster than 160km/h (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Baanvaks...) but also slower ones. The 80km/h tracks especially have a tendency to make a relatively short journey feel like it takes forever, especially if your train journey includes a trip over the 200km/h segment.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

"Gut Ding will Weile haben." / "Haste makes waste."

I've got good memories waiting on the platform in Arnhem for my train back into Germany in the early morning, after a night in the coffeeshops there in the nineties.

Observing all the commuters holding on to their coffee to go, and balancing it in their hands, anticipating the jerky start of these things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_Mat_%2764 :-)

Looked hilarious. All in sync. Like orchestrated.

Regarding the percieved slowness, and differences on both sides of the border(at the times?).

When doing the same route by car, your motorways felt supersmooth, even with all the strange markings and traffic signs :-)

Crossing back into Germany toward Oberhausen-> Ruhrpott came the Autobahn made of concrete slabs, and gaps between them. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!.

Very annoying when still 'under the influence' of that grassy green stuff :-)