Den Haag Laan van NOI railway station


Den Haag Laan van NOI railway station is a railway station in the Netherlands, on the border between The Hague and the town of Voorburg. It is served by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen and by the RandstadRail light-rail network. The station is named after the road on which it is located, Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indië, which literally translates as New East Indies Avenue, but probably refers to a former inn called Nieuw Oosteinde.

History

Laan van NOI is located on the oldest railway line in the Netherlands, the "Old Line" between Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The part of the line between Leiden and The Hague opened in 1843. The station "Nieuw Oosteinde" was located on the crossing with the Laan van Nieuw Oosteinde, near the inn "Nieuw Oosteinde". Nieuw Oosteinde was open from 1843 to 1864.
A new station opened in the same location on 1 May 1907 on the new line Den Haag Hollands Spoor - Scheveningen, and in 1908 the Hofpleinlijn between Hollands Spoor and Rotterdam Hofplein via Laan van NOI was opened: the first electrified railway in the Netherlands. Both new lines followed the "Old Line" between Hollands Spoor and Laan van NOI. Although the new station was located on the old line, it did not have platforms on that line, and trains between The Hague and Leiden did not stop there until 15 May 1931.
The line to Scheveningen closed in 1953. In 1979, a new connection was opened to Zoetermeer. Both the Hofpleinlijn to Rotterdam and the line to Zoetermeer were converted to light rail in 2006.

Name of the station

The first station was named after an inn, "Nieuw Oosteinde". When the station re-opened in 1907, it took the name of the road. The road crosses an administrative border at the railway station, and changes its name at that point: it is currently called "Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indië" in The Hague, and "Laan van Nieuw Oosteinde" in Voorburg. Both names were formerly used for the entire road, and for the railway station; in recent years, the "Oost-Indië" variant was most common for the station, possibly because the station is located on the Hague side of the border.
In 1978, the city name was added, and the road name was abbreviated: since then, the railway station has been called "Den Haag Laan van NOI". The name of the RandstadRail stop is just "Laan van NOI".

Current services

Den Haag Laan van NOI is served by the following services: