Many NS and international trains remain cancelled, some until Sunday

Contrary to earlier reports, Dutch national railway NS says trains will only run on a handful of routes on Saturday afternoon, and many trains might also be cancelled on Sunday. The damage to the tracks from Storm Eunice is greater than previously estimated and will take longer to clean up than first thought.

“ProRail is currently working hard on this,” NS said. The only trains in service, NS said, were between Eindhoven, Deurne, and Venlo, and between Eindhoven, Weert, Sittard, and Heerlen. The stations are all in southeastern Noord-Brabant or Limburg, where the storm on Friday and Saturday morning was the least intense.

Trains on many other routes will be cancelled the rest of the day as the major damage is repaired, according to ProRail’s live blog. NS is also not certain that all trains will be able to run again by Sunday. The journey planner shows which trains are still running and travelers are advised to check the planner shortly before departure, according to NS.

For international travel, no train travel from the Netherlands to Germany will be possible on Saturday. There are also no trains from the Netherlands to Brussels until after 6 p.m., a route which is also necessary to connect to other international destinations.

Some of the damage is severe. Part of the platform of the Den Helder Zuid station collapsed due to Storm Eunice and has been closed off for repairs. At Winterswijk, workers were continuing to clear trees Saturday afternoon which fell on the tracks, according to ProRail. Fences and scaffolding covered the tracks on the Schinkelbrug in Amsterdam.

NS had announced earlier that trains would run again in the course of the afternoon, after damage to the tracks and overhead lines was repaired in many locations across the country.