Worst evening rush hour this year, as stormy weather rolls in

Storms moving across the Netherlands from the south and east on Tuesday caused the worst evening rush hour on the roads this year, according to Dutch travel association ANWB. There were over 1,180 kilometers of traffic jams as of 5:35 p.m., the ANWB said, up from 1,050 kilometers just 15 minutes earlier.

“Especially in Noord-Brabant and parts of Gelderland, there are long traffic jams due to rain and thunder. Accidents also caused a lot of extra travel time throughout the country,” the ANWB said.

Among the worst traffic jams were problems up and down the A2 between Amsterdam and Eindhoven, on the A11 between Den Haag and Veenendaal, and on the A50 between Deventer and Eindhoven. There were also problems on the A4 between Amsterdam, Den Haag and Rotterdam in both directions, and then again closer to the Belgian border.

Complicating matters, a defective train caused delays for train passengers between Amsterdam Centraal Station and Haarlem. Flooding over the past few days in Limburg also caused the NS to replace trains with buses between Maastricht Randwyck and Visé.

The Tuesday evening rush hour was already expected to be more difficult than normal, as people returned to the office following the Pentecost holiday. Infrastructure agency Rijkswaterstaat had noted the possibility of about 500 kilometers of traffic jams on the highways, as the Randstad and many other parts of the Netherlands were placed under a Code Yellow weather warning

Earlier in the day, Dutch meteorological office KNMI warned of the possibility of thunderstorms, strong wind gusts and hail everywhere except the northeast of the country and the Wadden Islands. Storms were expected to develop in Limburg by 3 p.m., moving towards the northwest until Noord-Holland enters the alert by 6 p.m.