It also doesn't help that until recently, the Dutch freight trains weren't well coordinated with the commuter trains, sometimes leading to unnecessary delays.

It also doesn't help that until recently, the Dutch freight trains weren't well coordinated with the commuter trains, sometimes leading to unnecessary delays. Standardization seems like the easiest first step to pull off. For a given route, a train should always stop at the same platforms, be the same length at a given point in the day (that is, morning trains might be longer to deal with more traffic, but then they should always be equally long) and should stop so as to align its doors with painted cues on the platform.