NS drops 20 percent of Thursday's train service

Dutch train service NS will run only 80 percent of its usual nationwide traffic due to a winter weather advisory for Thursday. Passengers in the Randstad can expect trains every half-hour instead of every 15 minutes. No traffic disturbances are yet reported for the provinces of Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and Zeeland, A modified schedule allows more opportunity to resolve any weather-related failures and prevent congestion on the tracks, according to a statement on the NS website. The statement also says that on inclement weather days, NS and Dutch rail maintenance company ProRail have snow plows and emergency breakdown trains on hand as well as more staff at stations and on trains. Winter weather wreaked havoc on rail lines in the Netherlands in recent years, with reports suggesting the NS and ProRail have been plagued by miscommunication.