Haarlem railway station

The original, wooden station was built on the Oude Weg, just outside the Amsterdamse Poort in 1839 to accommodate the passengers of the first railway in the Netherlands between Haarlem and Amsterdam. This had a broad gauge rail width of the Dutch broad gauge 1,945 mm (6 ft 4+9⁄16 in).[1] The station was built outside the city, on the current location of the Centrale Werkplaats (maintenance depot) of the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij.

At great expense, the track gauge was reduced in 1866 to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) in order to conform to George Stephenson's standard gauge.[1] The train engine "De Snelheid" was the twin of the Amsterdam "Arend", which along with the carriages, were designed by Stephenson's apprentice, the English rail engineer Thomas Longridge Gooch of R.B. Longridge & Co.[1] There were 4 trains per day to Amsterdam, scheduled at 9:00, 14:00, 16:00, and 18:00. The prices of the tickets for 1st (closed carriage), 2nd, and 3rd class (charabanc) were 1.20, 80c, and 40c (guilders).[1]

1842 neo-classical station by F.W. Conrad.

Within a few years the new railway turned out to be a great success, and in 1842 a permanent station was built on the current location. It was designed by Frederick Willem Conrad[2] in a semi-Greek neo-classicistic style. The front of the building was open to the street.

Inside Haarlem station today.

As of 9 December 2018, the following services call at Haarlem:

• 
  1900s decoration depicting the history of the Amsterdam-Haarlem train route from the trekschuit to carriageway along the haarlemmertrekvaart.
• 
  In this commemorative tile tablet for Beijnes, now in the Spoorwegmuseum, the old Beijnes factory across from the Haarlem station can be seen, that was built in the same style as the station itself in 1867. The Beijnes hall and workshop was situated across from the station, and is where the train locomotives were serviced and where the train and tram carriages were made.
• 
  Waiting room first class; the cow-catchers depicted on the train engines are historically inaccurate and were never found on Dutch train engines.
• 
  1939 tile memorial plaque celebrating 100 years of railway history shows accurate early engine on the left.

• The scenes in the 2004 film Ocean's Twelve that are meant to portray Amsterdam Centraal station were actually shot on platform 3a at Haarlem station.[4]

Dutch Rijksmonument 19786

• NS website (in English)
• Dutch public transport travel planner (in English)
• Connexxion website (in Dutch)
• Haarlem Shuffle - Central Railway Station