Amsterdam public transport workers harassed, threatened over chaos
Angry travelers verbally abused, harassed, and threatened GVB workers on Wednesday after the metro and several ferries to and from Amsterdam-Noord were canceled. A bizarre combination of circumstances inconvenienced tens of thousands of public transport users, and the nuisance will continue for weeks to come, the Telegraaf reports.
“It was a miserable day on which the bad luck continued piling up,” a spokesperson for the Amsterdam public transport company told the Telegraaf. “We hate to have to inconvenience the travelers. But the inconvenience does not justify that people who cannot do anything about it and who work hard for the people of Amsterdam are treated unfairly and verbally abused.”
“Think of hitting and kicking the bus, smashing the security doors, swearing, but also more serious things like spitting on drivers, cornering them, and threatening them, throwing liquid over the driver, and smashing security windows to grab drivers,” the GVB spokesperson said. “That’s really not normal! Let it be clear that we find this behavior unacceptable.”
The misery for public transport users, walkers, and cyclists who cross by ferry started on Tuesday afternoon. The metro under the IJ flooded due to a broken water pipe. That has now been repaired, and specialists managed to pump the tunnel dry on Wednesday. But a lot of mud remained behind, and it will take time to clean up and assess the damage. The GVB expects to start up the metro again on Sunday.
On top of that, problems with the ferries to and from Amsterdam-Noord arose on Wednesday. The main ferry connection between the city center and Noord failed, and the landing site on Buiksloterweg cannot be used for the Tolhuis ferry in the coming days. Then, technical problems resulted in the GVB having to take five of its 14 ferries out of service at the end of Wednesday afternoon.
“It is not just Murphy’s Law,” the GVB spokesperson told the Telegraaf. “Mr. Murphy brought his entire family with him.”
The defective ferries had to stop sailing immediately after the GVB was informed that they contained parts that could cause technical problems and damage the electrical system, the spokesperson explained. All in all, it will take weeks before everything is back to normal.
