Dutch King Willem-Alexander on Thursday officially opened the new Rotterdam Central railway station.

Rotterdam Central Station is the first finished project in a series of renovated or newly built large stations in the Netherlands, which are part of the largest railway innovation since the creation of the Dutch railways 175 years ago. Amsterdam, The Hague, Delft , Utrecht, Breda and Arnhem will follow the example of Rotterdam.

The new station looks bigger with 47,000 square meters, and is enhanced by a large glass window with direct views of the city. The roof above the tracks is made of glass as well. The station has a walkway that connects the 16 tracks and a new passenger passage of almost 50 meters wide.

The station has become more accessible and includes additional escalators, 27 in total, and in addition there are 136,000 solar panels installed on the roof area.

After Amsterdam, Rotterdam is the second biggest city of the Netherlands with 620,000 inhabitants. Currently around 110,000 people pass the station area every day. In 2025 this is expected to be tripled to 330,000 per day.

The station is achieved through cooperation between the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, the Municipality of Rotterdam, the Rotterdam region and railway organizations ProRail and NS. The construction of the station took about seven years and cost around 700 million euros (973 million US dollars).