NS busy as Dutch Grand Prix, Amsterdam ArenA draw crowds

Thousands of racing fans will flock to Zandvoort again on Saturday for another day of the Dutch Grand Prix. The seaside resort town and the NS are gearing up for the busy day, where qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix of the Netherlands in Formula 1 starts at 3 p.m. Roads will also be busy around the Amsterdam ArenA, where no trains will stop in the afternoon.

The NS will use 12 trains per hour throughout the Formula 1 weekend to transport fans from Haarlem and Amsterdam to Zandvoort and back again. This means a train every five minutes, with the intention of bringing 10,000 passengers per hour to Formula 1. About 95,000 visitors came to the event on Friday.

Last year, the event was allowed to continue with only two thirds of the number of visitors due to the coronavirus restrictions in force at the time. This year all visitors are welcome on the circuit. The municipality of Zandvoort said it was "relaxed" and "ready for the party" in the run-up to the weekend.

With a football match, two sold-out concerts and the NS not stopping at the nearby station for hours, crowds are also expected on the roads around the ArenA area in Amsterdam on Saturday. "Just as the football match ends, the trains around the ArenA area are full of F1 fans on their way home," the NS previously reported. Because the railway company cannot guarantee the safety of large numbers of travelers in combination with already full trains at Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA station, the trains will not stop there between 2:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

The municipality has arranged 3,000 extra parking spaces at the RAI Convention Center, from which people can continue their journey by metro. Transport company GVB is deploying extra metros and the AFAS Live and Ziggo Dome will open half an hour later than usual, in order to better distribute the crowds. Ajax will play against SC Cambuur in the Johan Cruijff ArenA on Saturday and there are sold-out concerts in the Ziggo Dome and AFAS Live.