The Hague runs the largest tram network in the Netherlands, and it is the only Dutch city network built to carry people out of town as much as around it.
Four of its lines end in a different municipality.
That shapes how you use it, and it is the first thing to understand about living here without a car.
One operator, HTM, runs almost all of it: eleven tram lines, three RandstadRail light rail lines, and a small bus network numbered in the twenties.
Everything takes the same tap of a bank card, and everything is on the same fare table.
The coast lines
Four trams reach the sea and they reach different bits of it, which matters more than it sounds.
Line 1 runs from Scheveningen Noord all the way south to Delft Tanthof, passing the Kurhaus, the Statenkwartier, the Peace Palace, the centre and Station Hollands Spoor on the way.
It is the long diagonal through the city and probably the single most useful line on the map.
Line 9 also starts at Scheveningen Noord but swings inland past Madurodam and the Malieveld to Den Haag Centraal, then out through the Zuiderpark and Moerwijk to Vrederust.
Line 11 goes to Scheveningen Haven, the working harbour end rather than the beach end, via Scheveningen Dorp.
Line 12 serves Duindorp and the Vogelwijk.
So: 1 and 9 for the boulevard, 11 for the harbour and the fish, 12 for Duindorp.
Getting that wrong on a hot Sunday costs you a twenty minute walk along the sand.
The tunnel lines and the centre
Lines 2, 3, 4 and 6 run under the Grote Marktstraat through the tram tunnel, which is why the main shopping street has no tracks in it.
Line 2 comes from Kraayenstein in the far west through Loosduinen and past the Westeinde hospital, then out to Leidschendam.
Line 6 runs from Leyenburg through the Schilderswijk and on to Leidschendam Noord.
Lines 3 and 4 are RandstadRail, which is light rail rather than tram: bigger vehicles, longer stop spacing, and their own alignment once they leave the city.
Line 3 runs Loosduinen to Zoetermeer, line 4 from De Uithof to Lansingerland-Zoetermeer, and line 34 is a weekday peak reinforcement of the same corridor from De Savornin Lohmanplein.
The lines out of the city
Line 15 comes in from Nootdorp through Ypenburg and Rijswijk and terminates at Den Haag Centraal, where the same vehicle continues as line 16 out to Wateringen.
Line 17 runs from the Statenkwartier past the Kunstmuseum, through the centre and Rijswijk to Wateringen.
Line 19 links Leidschendam and Leidschenveen to Delft.
These four are the reason people who work in Delft, Rijswijk or the Westland can live in the centre of The Hague without a car.
They are also worth checking before you sign a lease in one of the surrounding towns, because a ten minute walk to a line 17 stop is a different life from a twenty minute walk to a bus.
Buses
The bus network is small because the trams do the heavy lifting.
HTM’s own figure is 110 electric buses carrying 50,000 passengers a day, and the whole fleet is electric.
Lines run 20 to 29, with no 27.
The ones worth knowing: 22 from Duindorp along the coast past the Kurhaus and Madurodam, through the centre and out to Rijswijk De Schilp; 24 from Kijkduin right across to Station Mariahoeve; 26 and 28 to Station Voorburg; 23 between Scheveningen Noord and Kijkduin along the dune edge.
Bus 24 and bus 22 between them cover a lot of ground the trams do not.
Night buses run six routes, N1 to N6, all starting in the city centre and running out to Scheveningen, Wassenaar, Poeldijk, Rijswijk, Delft and Zoetermeer.
HTM says they run on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and the last departure is at 05:30.
They are ring routes in one direction only, which is worth knowing before you rely on one to get home.
Centraal or Hollands Spoor
The city has two main stations and they are not interchangeable.
Den Haag Centraal is a terminus: trains reverse there, and the tunnel lines 2, 3, 4 and 6 all serve it along with 9, 15 and 16.
Hollands Spoor sits on the through line to Rotterdam, so trains that are going somewhere else stop there instead; trams 1 and 16 pass it, and 11 and 12 terminate at it.
For anything heading south, HS is often quicker even if Centraal feels like the main one.
The train article goes into which services use which station.
Using it without thinking about it
Check in and check out every time, including when you change from one HTM vehicle to another.
Doors do not open automatically at quiet stops; there is a button, and on the older trams it is the one on the door itself.
Plan with 9292.nl or the HTM app rather than a map.
Both know about diversions, and this city has a lot of them: HTM publishes its own page of omleidingen en verstoringen, and it is regularly long.
The printed network map at htm.nl carries a warning on its face that current diversions are not shown on it.
Bikes do not go on trams.
That is the one structural difference from the train network, where they do on off-peak services, and it is why the bike and the tram are alternatives here rather than a combination.
New trams, gradually
HTM unveiled its first Stadler TINA tram in Scheveningen on 4 September 2026, the first of an order of 62 and the first TINA fleet anywhere in the Netherlands.
They are 36.5 metres long and carry up to 230 passengers, with a flat low floor throughout.
Line 2 gets them first, with lines 1, 6 and 12 following from 2027.
The practical effect is level boarding without a step, which the older GTL trams on lines 1, 11 and 12 do not have.
If you use a pram or a wheelchair, that is the difference between a line that works and one that does not, and for the next couple of years it will vary by line.
Sources
- HTM, lijnennetkaarten and dienstregeling: the tram, bus and topographic network maps for 2026, and the note printed on the map that current bus and tram diversions are not shown on it
- HTM, bussen: 110 electric buses, 50,000 passengers a day, an entirely electric fleet, and night buses running Thursday, Friday and Saturday on six routes all starting in the centre of The Hague with a last departure at 05:30
- Haagse tram and Haagse bus (Dutch Wikipedia, current network sections): tram line termini and intermediate points for lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 34, bus routes 20 to 29, and the night routes N1 to N6
- Railway Gazette International, 7 September 2026, and HTM press release: the first Stadler TINA tram unveiled in Scheveningen on 4 September 2026, an order of 62 vehicles, 36.5 m long, capacity up to 230, entering service on route 2 with routes 1, 6 and 12 following from 2027
- HTM, omleidingen en verstoringen: the operator’s own live diversion and disruption page
