All NS trains out of service until at least 5 p.m. due to “technical malfunction”
Update, 7:15 p.m. on 3 April 2022: The NS cancelled all remaining trains on Sunday.
Update, 3:40 p.m. on 3 April 2022: The NS said that the systemwide outage would continue until at least 8 p.m. NL Times reported on this in a separate article.
An undisclosed “technical malfunction” forced national railway service NS to cancel all trains on Sunday until at least 5 p.m. The rail operator announced that all travelers should hold off on their travel for the time being. Anyone who was on a train when the shutdown was announced was expected to have to exit their train at the next station.
Replacement bus service to help those people was “not an option” as too many passengers were impacted by the problem, a NS spokesperson told ANP.
“We advise you to postpone your train journey with the NS, or if you are on the road, to look for other travel options,” NS said in a statement. For much of the morning, the NS was also contending with a problem with its online travel planner, which was unable to show updated information about delays and cancellations. That problem is also ongoing, NS said early Sunday afternoon.
”We can't even give any information at the stations. We are working hard on the recovery, but unfortunately it is not yet possible to say how long this situation will last,” the rail operator said.
Regional train operators were able to continue running their routes, but they too were unable to provide up-to-date information about delays or cancellations, the NS stated.
A signal failure also caused a considerable problem for the NS on Saturday. Trains to and from Schiphol were impacted throughout the day and into Sunday morning due to the issue.
A telephone outage last September ground all train traffic to a halt across the Netherlands. That situation meant it was virtually impossible to maintain reliable communication with train engineers, railroad infrastructure firm ProRail said at the time. A similar shutdown also happened last May. Another technical problem forced ProRail to stop all trains in the northern portion of the country earlier this year.
The last major national shutdown of trains came in February due to severe storms. Powerful winds caused damage to railway infrastructure, and felled trees landed on track across the country.