Public transit strike: Traffic already piling up
A nationwide public transit strike means that more people are taking the car to work on Tuesday and an extremely busy morning rush hour is expected. By 7:30 a.m. there were already 300 kilometers of traffic jams on Dutch roads. "It is twice as busy on the roads as usual around this time", the ANWB said, NU.nl reports.
According to the travelers' association, there are major problems around Alkmaar due to a broken truck on the A9. Motorists in the area should take extra travel time of around 48 minutes into account. Roads from Noord-Brabant to the Randstad and those around Rotterdam are also already crowded.
Public transit workers across the Netherlands are striking for a better pension system on Tuesday. Almost all trains, buses, trams and ferries are at a standstill. A court ordered that four trains per hour must run between Schiphol airport and Amsterdam Central Station during the strike, but NS warns that this is not enough to accommodate the usual passenger numbers.
NS said it will try to run trains in the rest of the country where possible. "We can't say which trains will or won't run, and therefore we advise you to not travel by train", the rail company said on its website. The trains that do manage to run will be "very limited and unpredictable".
Schiphol called on people to avoid the airport unless strictly necessary. The Koninklijke Marechaussee, a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military and is responsible for airport security, deployed extra motorcycle officers around Schiphol for traffic safety, the Marechaussee said on Twitter.
The ANWB called on people to work from home on Tuesday if at all possible, and if not to carpool. A lift can be requested or offered using a number of carpool hashtags on social media.
