Train boss: “Burning smell” not enough to shut Schiphol tunnel

ProRail CEO Pier Eringa wants to investigate whether it is possible to have trains continue their routes after a fire due to a burning smell. According to him, a burning smell should not be enough to close down the Schiphol tunnel. Eringa said this in an interview with the Telegraaf on Friday. "Often it turns out that the burning smell is caused by the driver's brakes. It has not happened even once that there was a real fire. I want to have experts look into whether we can not do something else than stop all trains immediately." A spokesperson for ProRail told AT5 on Thursday, after train traffic to and from Schiphol was once again disrupted, that the last two failures were caused by jamming brakes on a train. The ProRail CEO emphasized that safety obviously comes first, "but we can not keep closing the tunnel if it turns out nothing is wrong."