Strike affecting regional bus, train services throughout the country

The timetables operated by some regional public transport providers will be quite a bit different from normal on Thursday due to a strike. Arriva trains are running in the north of the country, and there are train replacement services between Groningen and Leer and between Maastricht and Heerlen. In the east of the country, however, all trains from Arriva and Keolis will be scrapped. The available bus services differ per region.

Half of all buses from Keolis will run in Almere, which are operated under the brand allGo, just like the Syntus buses in Utrecht. In Twente, about 30 percent of the buses will run. Arriva said that the local buses in the east, north, and south will operate and that the buses on the Wadden Islands will, too. For other bus connections, it was still too early to be able to indicate which will remain on the timetable and which will be canceled.

Smaller carriers such as Qbuzz, Transdev, Hermes and Connexxion said that the number of buses depends on the willingness to strike among employees, and that it is only possible to indicate shortly before a scheduled bus journey whether the bus is running. The companies advised passengers to check the travel planner shortly before departure.

There will also be strikes next Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The strikes relate to the collective labor agreement in regional transport that applies to about 13,000 employees, mainly bus drivers.

Employers' association VWOV has stated several times that it cannot offer what the unions demand. For example, the FNV labor union wants salaries to be increased by 16.9 percent over a period of one year. The CNV union demanded a 14 percent wage increase over eighteen months. The offer from the VWOV amounts to a wage increase of 11 percent.