Strike halts NS train traffic in most of Netherlands

No trains are running on Friday in large parts of the Netherlands due to a strike by railway personnel, NS reported. Train traffic is at a standstill in the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel, Zeeland, Noord-Brabant, and part of Groningen.

The regular timetable is running in Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, and Utrecht, but there are also some cancellations. A spokesperson explained that the cancellations involved trains that were supposed to start in the strike areas.

Those trains have to start and turn elsewhere on Friday, with different employees than those from the strike area who were initially supposed to operate those trains.“We have to puzzle together staff, and sometimes that doesn’t go completely well. That can cause a train to be canceled.” But the general picture is that “we have started,” he said.

A map published by NS on Thursday showed that “limited” trains would run between Almere, Amsterdam, Schiphol, and The Hague. That also applies to the route between The Hague and Breda and between Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Zaltbommel.

International trains will run on Friday. NS does expect some EuroCity trains to be cancelled. These trains run between Rotterdam and Brussels. Trains operated by regional carriers like Arriva and Keolis will run as normal on Friday.

On Tuesday and last Friday, NS services were paralysed throughout the Netherlands due to regional strikes by railway personnel. With the strikes, the railway union VVMC wants to force a better collective bargaining agreement. The union wants, among other things, that wages for NS personnel increase by 4 percent. NS does not want to offer anything more than 2.55 percent.

In 2022, NS employees’ wages rose by 9 percent. In the previous collective agreement, which expired on March 1 and also needed a strike to complete, the unions and NS agreed on a salary increase of 6.6 percent.