Schiphol flights cancelled, delayed as storm arrives; Amsterdam-The Hague train problems

Dozens of flights faced issues at Dutch airports on Tuesday, particularly Schiphol Airport, with thunderstorms and rough weather moving across Europe. The dark clouds built up, with strong winds and nasty weather hitting the Zeeland coast in the southeast of the country before 5 p.m. The strong winds were affecting the high-speed rail line, and a signal failure caused problems with passenger trains between Amsterdam and The Hague.

A Code Orange weather warning was issued for the Netherlands earlier on Tuesday when the national meteorological office, KNMI, said the stormy weather would be worse than expected. The warning was for heavy wind gusts up to 100 kilometers per hour, capable of knocking down trees and blowing debris. People can expect lightning strikes, flash flooding and large hail, the KNMI said.

About 20 flights were cancelled at Schiphol Airport, split evenly between departures and arrivals. Over 400 departing flights faced delays throughout the day, ranging from a few minutes to several hours. Over 200 arriving flights were also delayed, and the situation could get worse.

"High delays from late afternoon due to Weather," said European air traffic control center Eurocontrol in an update. The reason was specifically for low clouds and thunderstorms. Some delays were also expected to affect aircraft scheduled to flight in the Maastricht airspace.

Eindhoven Airport reported 31 delayed departures, and one cancelled outbound flight. Two more arriving flights were scrapped, and 13 others were delayed. A total of eight flights arriving at Rotterdam The Hague Airport were delayed, and two others were cancelled.

The airport noted two cancelled departures and three delayed departures. Passenger flights at Maastricht Aachen Airport and Groningen Eelde Airport were largely unaffected by the storm because of the scheduling times on Tuesday.

Due to the expected strong winds, the high speed passenger rail service between Rotterdam and Breda was planned to be taken out of service on Tuesday evening. No high-speed trains will run from 6:30 p.m. until about 8 p.m., the NS predicted.

The trains showed early issues, with a badly-timed signal failure taking place on the route between Amsterdam Centraal and Den Haag Centraal. This was expected to last until the end of the day, according to national railway NS. Fewer Intercity trains were running between the central stations in Leiden and The Hague, and far fewer trains were running between Haarlem and Zandvoort.

Replacement buses were running between Haarlem and Voorhout, with stops in Heemstede-Aerdenhout and Hillegom. That was to help provide more options on the route connecting the central stations of Amsterdam and Leiden.

Trains were also scrapped from 6:30 p.m. between Rotterdam and Dordrecht and between Dordrecht and Roosendaal. The cancellation was due to the expected weather, and was unlikely to begin again before 8 p.m., the NS stated.

Traffic on the roadways built up to over 500 kilometers of traffic jams on Dutch highways earlier than normal for a Tuesday. By 6:20 p.m., traffic jams were very limited for a rush hour period, with only about 130 kilometers of traffic.

The worst traffic jams were on the inbound lanes of the A4 from Schiphol to Amsterdam, with vehicles in stop-and-go, and also on the A50 from Arnhem south to Oss. Traffic jams there built up to 19 kilometers with traffic at a standstill due to an accident. The A15 eastbound from Tiel towards Nijmegen also came to a halt due to an accident.

Updated warnings for thunderstorms, 100 km/h wind gusts, hail and heavy rain on Tuesday