Commuters assoc.: Schiphol train problems “unacceptable”

Thursday morning's disruption to train traffic around Schiphol was the last straw for commuters association Rover. The association has had enough of the train failures that has been plaguing the airport. Train passengers had to make do with fewer trains to and from Schiphol for several hours on Thursday morning due to a signalling and points failure, NU reports. Fewer trains traveled the routes between the airport and Leiden, Amsterdam, Almer, Hilversum and Utrecht. The failure was cleared up around 9:00 a.m. and rail traffic slowly returned to normal. "It is not a new thing that this happens at least twice a week. This situation is really unacceptable", Chris Vonk of Rover said to AT5. According to Vonk, the safety system around the airport is idiotic - it has the highest safety standards in the world and it does not work properly. "The NS has been promising for some time that they will look at the fire systems in the tunnel. They are set too strictly. Usually the fire alarm goes of for just a few floating sand grains. That is the case in 99 percent of the of the situations. And that has to change quickly." A spokesperson for the airport told AT5 that it is up to NS and ProRail to provide a solution. As far as the spokesperson knew, nobody missed their flight due to this morning's delay. ProRail is working on solving the problems surrounding Schiphol, a spokesperson said to the newspaper. "We understand that such a failur has a large impact. We are cooperating with Schiphol and the NS on reducing the reports", Anna Kodde said. According to her, the last two failures were caused by jammed brakes on a train.