NS scraps 25% of Noord-Holland trains on Thursday; Best Kept Secret festival warns fans

A quarter of trains are expected to be canceled in Noord-Holland and large parts of Gelderland and Overijssel on Thursday. The NS had already announced that fewer trains would run in those regions, where a strike by railway staff had been announced, but the extent was still unclear.

The strike will not take place on Thursday, but NS had already adjusted the timetable. "It is a lot of work and complex to fully adjust the timetable again," a spokesperson said. "That is why we are not running the regular timetable in the areas mentioned."

In the rest of the country, trains will run according to schedule on Thursday, NS expects.

However, large parts of the Netherlands will have no trains on Friday due to a strike from railway staff, the NS reported. Train traffic will be at a standstill in the provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel, Flevoland, Zeeland, Noord-Brabant, Limburg, and a section of Gelderland. The only areas in the Netherlands with regular train services will be Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, and Utrecht.

According to the NS, the strike may also affect passengers in these provinces. They may have to deal with delays or trains being canceled, said the railway company.

A map that the NS has published shows that train travel between Almere, Amsterdam, Schiphol, and The Hague is “limited.” This also applies to the route between The Hague and Breda and between Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Zaltbommel.

There will be no changes to international trains on Friday. The NS are expecting some EuroCity trains to be canceled. These are trains that drive between Rotterdam and Brussels. Trains owned by regional transport companies like Arriva and Keolis will also be running as normal on Friday.

No NS trains were running throughout the country on Tuesday and Friday due to a regional strike by railway staff. The railway union VVMC is attempting to use the strikes to improve their collective bargaining agreement. The union wants NS worker's salaries to increase by 4 percent, while the NS does not want to go higher than 2.55 percent.

In 2022, NS staff members were given a 9 percent increase. This also came after strikes. The previous collective bargaining agreement, which expired on March 1, had an agreement between the NS and the unions on a 6.6 percent average wage increase.

The news led to the organizers of the festival, Best Kept Secret, warning the people attending to be well prepared for the strike. The festival will take place on Friday in Hilvarenbeek.

“Our team is working hard to arrange extra bus transport, but due to the short notice, the availability is extremely limited. We will keep you informed as soon as we have more information," the organization wrote on its website.

On Friday, there will be shuttle buses driving from Tilburg station to the festival for people who can get to the station in other ways. The organization has asked people coming by car with a space left to carpool with others.

An NS spokesperson has said that the company has no opinion to share about the union’s strategy. “It is mainly annoying for the passengers, I think,” the spokesperson said.

Rail operator NS is considering how the company can break the “impasse” with the unions. The spokesperson emphasized that NS had already said that they would like to continue negotiations regarding the collective bargaining agreement for their staff. “Our door has always been open.”

He also stated that the NS has no wish to have the negotiations take place in the media but would rather have them take place at the negotiation table. The collective bargaining agreement affects 17,500 workers. No negotiations have taken place over the last few days.