NS may have to make more timetable cuts due to staff shortage

The Dutch national railway, NS, is afraid that the timetable will have to be scaled down even further if additional staff is not found in time, the NS confirmed after a report published by De Telegraaf.

CEO Bert Groenewegen told staff on Thursday afternoon that the coming weeks are "crucial" for the company. The organization is still trying hard to reduce the staff shortage, but there are "still 2200 vacancies," he said. Groenewegen stated he will enter into discussions with staff, trade unions and works councils and will discuss any topic brought up.

"We cannot lose any time. Because if we continue like this, we may have to decide to scale down our timetable even further," a decision he called "undesirable."

In the speech to NS staff, Groenewegen also said that the railway company has asked a great deal from its staff during the coronavirus pandemic, and that the buffer has evaporated.

In his speech, Groenewegen also criticized the government and the list of required conditions under which the NS may operate trains from 2025. He described the Cabinet’s idea to open up competition on some routes as handing off the high-speed lines to the open market when it comes to international destinations such as Berlin and London. And all the while, they may have to "cut even more domestic lines from our main rail network," he said.

"The doomsday scenario of a major commercial experiment on the railways is becoming increasingly likely," said the CEO.

The NS previously announced that it would have to make significant cuts in the trains it will operate in 2023 due to the staff shortage. It wants to run a tenth fewer trains compared to 2019, the last year before coronavirus. The timetable will go into effect in December, with changes phased in starting just last month.

Traveler organization Rover believes that the NS chooses to cancel trains too quickly to address the staff shortage and that the rail organization can do more.