Amsterdam train cancellations starting tonight to affect Beyoncé fans, beachgoers

Scheduled railroad maintenance near Amsterdam Central Station will begin early Friday morning, which will have an impact on several train routes until the work is completed early on Monday. The track work means many passengers will have to make do with reroutes, different departure or arrival platforms, replacement bus services, or will have to use a different mode of transport altogether.

The track work will mainly affect those whose trains run in either direction between Haarlem and Amsterdam Sloterdijk, and between Amsterdam Central Station and Amsterdam Amstel Station. It could be somewhat challenging for anyone who wants to visit the Noord-Holland coast at Zandvoort, or the Amsterdam Bijlmer area for events there, like performances by Beyoncé. National railway NS and railroad infrastructure manager ProRail advised all passengers to monitor the NS Travel Planner or consult the NS app when making plans.

For those traveling between the capital and Haarlem, express buses and local buses will be put to use. Those will operate between the bus station at Amsterdam Central and Jansweg in Haarlem, and may stop at Sloterdijk, Halfweg-Zwanenburg, and Haarlem Spaarnwoude. The adjusted schedule will begin at 1 a.m. on Friday, and end at 2 a.m. on Monday, and should add an extra 30 minutes of travel time.

"The timetable has been adjusted between Haarlem and Leiden Central," the NS also said. The railway will also add two more trains per hour between Haarlem and Zandvoort aan Zee.

However, the NS also cautioned that the warm summer weather means the possibility of crowds. As a result, people may want to change their plans accordingly, and consider unaffected destinations instead. With temperatures expected to climb back towards 30 degrees this weekend, passengers were advised to bring water, and to fill up empty bottles at any available water tap at the stations.

Starting at 4 a.m. on Friday, many trains will also run on an adjusted schedule between Amsterdam Central Station and Amsterdam Amstel. Work will not be completed until about 2:10 a.m. on Monday. Aside from using a replacement Metro service, the NS is advising many different routes including the regular metros and buses used in Amsterdam.

It also means that the 60,000 people expected to attend each of Beyoncé's concerts at the Johan Cruijff ArenA on Saturday and Sunday will likely be inconvenienced. Concert promoter Mojo advised ticket holders, "Travel by train to Duivendrecht station or use Amsterdam's metro network to travel to Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA." Pre-paid parking options were still available at the ArenA as of Thursday for both concert dates. Another 5,000 people are expected to attend a performance by Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan at AFAS Live on Sunday. They will also face the same issues.

The track work also affects trains headed towards Amersfoort, and thus also those to and from Berlin.

The work being carried out involves removing switches and sections of track to extend platforms 7 and 8 at Amsterdam Central Station, as well as routine maintenance on the Singelgracht bridge, two other bridges on the east side of the station, and the overhead lines along Dijksgracht to the east of the station. The work will be carried out by VolkerRail and Swietelsky, the latter of which will be bringing "the largest rail crane in Europe," ProRail said.

Separately, schedules have also been adjusted for some international routes, including trains between Amsterdam and Brussels or Paris due to work along the high-speed line.