Power outage: No trains between Schiphol and Amsterdam, Utrecht all day
Update 10:57 a.m. - Updated to add latest information. No trains running between Schiphol and Amsterdam and between Schiphol and Utrecht until at least 11:00 p.m.
A power outage has halted train traffic to and from Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, and Utrecht until at least 11:00 p.m. Initially, no trains were running to the airport at all, but train traffic from Leiden has now resumed. The timing of this outage is especially unfortunate given the NATO summit in The Hague.
The outage is caused by a fire breaking out in the power cables at around 3:45 a.m., a ProRail spokesperson told NU.nl. Repairs will take “a large part of the day,” at least the entire morning. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, so ProRail could not yet say whether it was sabotage.
The spokesperson called the failure “very unfortunate,” given the NATO summit. Many important highways in the Randstad will be closed on Tuesday for security reasons while world leaders travel from Schiphol Airport to The Hague, so reaching the airport by road will be even more difficult than usual.
An NS spokesperson advised travelers to find alternative transport to the airport on Tuesday. The rail company won’t deploy buses to replace the trains, because the problem is too big for replacement transportation to solve.
“Use the Amsterdam metro between Amsterdam Sloterdijk, Amsterdam Lelylaan, Amsterdam Zuid, and Duivendrecht,” NS advised on its travel planner.
The outage is also impacting traint traffic between Rotterdam and Breda and Leiden and The Hague, where fewer trains are running. Travellers can expect about 15 extra minutes of travel time.
