Most trains to and from Utrecht cancelled through 10:30 p.m. due to power failure
A power outage on Monday evening led to the shutdown of all train traffic to and from Utrecht, Dutch national railway NS and railroad infrastructure agency ProRail confirmed. The cause of the disruption was not immediately announced just after 5 p.m. The resultant problems were expected to last until about 7:30 p.m., but that was eventually extended multiple times to at least 10:30 p.m. It was the second major power outage in the Netherlands on Monday, with an earlier disruption affecting tens of thousands of households in and around the center and west side of Amsterdam.
"After the [Utrecht] power outage was resolved, disruptions remained on the tracks between Utrecht and Amsterdam, meaning that signals and switches cannot be operated. We are working hard to repair this, but this has seriously disrupted train traffic around Utrecht. Passengers should expect serious disruptions and postpone their trips where possible," ProRail wrote in an update at 6:40 p.m.
Utrecht Centraal Station was very crowded with passengers forced to do nothing but wait for new information. Police officers and NS workers were visibly present throughout the train station, which is the busiest in the Netherlands by daily passenger volume. "We are monitoring the station. Nothing crazy has happened," a police representative told NOS.
There were no trains running between Utrecht and both Amsterdam and Schiphol Airport. Initially, there were far fewer trains operating between Utrecht and the cities of Arnhem, Den Bosch and Eindhoven with the cancellation of the Intercity services there. Sprinter trains running the already crowded Utrecht-Hilversum route were expected to be packed as passengers raced to find an alternative.
However, it was not clear if the NS could continue to run those trains due to the power outage. Passengers were advised to monitor the NS website's travel planner for updates to scheduled services.
Additionally, there were no trains running on the route connecting Amsterdam Centraal and Gouda. Those trains would normally operate through the west of Utrecht with stops in Breukelen and Woerden.
Replacement bus services were only announced between Ede-Wageningen and Wolfheze due to a signal failure reported earlier in the afternoon. Those passengers can still expect increased travel times of at least an hour.
The NS said customers can request refunds if their journeys were delayed by a minimum of 30 minutes. For the time being, the railway will not reimburse passengers who pay for alternative means to get to their destinations, the railway wrote on X.
Utrecht Centraal is the most important rail junction in the Netherlands due to its position in the heart of the country. The busiest station in the country is used by roughly 189,000 people per day. That total is 38,000 more than Amsterdam Centraal, according to a 2022 annual report from NS.
