Schiphol train issues to last all morning; Also impacting trains to Utrecht, Rotterdam
The signal failure disrupting train traffic between Schiphol Airport and Amsterdam Zuid today will last at least the entire morning, ProRail expects. Far fewer trains are running on these routes. The failure also has fewer trains running between Schiphol and the stations of Utrecht, Hoofddorp, Leiden, and Rotterdam.
The problem is due to a broken component used to switch trains on sections of rails, said infrastructure firm ProRail. “This is a part of the track and will be replaced as soon as possible. After that, train traffic can resume,” ProRail said at about 9:40 a.m.
NS initially hoped that the issue would be resolved by 9:15 a.m., but it is taking longer to fix than expected. The rail company has updated the estimated time of repair to 11:15 a.m.
An announcement at Amsterdam Zuid station said that the signal failure was caused by arson, NOS reported. But according to ProRail, that is not the case. Suspected arson did halt train traffic between Schiphol and the cities of Amsterdam and Utrecht on Tuesday, but today’s issue is unrelated, the rail manager said.
“This is therefore an annoying, technical malfunction that is not related to the issues around Schiphol yesterday. It is equally annoying for passengers and the carrier that trains are temporarily out of service,” ProRail said.
Tuesday’s issues were caused by a fire in the cables along the track. The police suspect arson and are investigating whether it was sabotage linked to the NATO summit that started in The Hague on the same day.
