NS

Rotterdam Central Station was evacuated for a short time on Monday morning after an automatic fire alarm was triggered. Hundreds of people were sent outside while the fire department investigated, NOS reports.

The fire brigade found no problems in the station. The fire department believes the alarm was triggered by repair work being done at the station, according to the broadcaster. The station was opened to the public a short time later.

According to NS, the false alarm had no consequences for train traffic. 

The company that produces Stint cargo vehicles announced it plans to inspect all 3,500 units currently on roadways after a fatal accident last week left four children dead. The accident took place in Oss, when a Stint belonging to a daycare operator crossed onto railroad tracks and was struck by an oncoming train.

A fifth child and the adult operator of the vehicle were hospitalized with serious injuries.

A fundraiser was launched on Friday for the victims of a fatal railway accident in Oss on Thursday morning. By Sunday over 200 thousand euros had been raised, ANP reports.

The fundraiser was started by Nick Nietveld from Almere. He was so shaken by the deaths of the four children that he decided to take action. His goal was to raise 60 thousand euros. That amount was surpassed within a day. 

Four children were killed in a collision between a train and a trike on a guarded rail crossing near the Oss-West station in Oss on Thursday morning. Another child and an adult were seriously injured. The trike belonged to a local daycare, witnesses told newspaper AD.

From today individual travelers can pay for their public transit at the end of the month, instead of needing to have money on your public transit card and paying at the end of every trip. The new service, NS Flex, applies to all forms of public transport - trains, bus, tram, and subway, RTL Nieuws.

The fault that caused a major disruption to train traffic in and around Amsterdam on Tuesday evening was the result of a software error, which was caused by a unique combination of circumstances after a shoplifter fled into the Schiphol tunnel, rail manager ProRail said, RTL Nieuws reports.

Trains scheduled to travel to-and-from Amsterdam Centraal, Schiphol, and stations in the Amsterdam area were scrapped on Tuesday evening due to "a major disruption in the train traffic control systems," national railway NS said in a statement.

People who went to see the giant marionettes of Royal de Luxe in Leeuwarden on Sunday, were left stranded by a train disruption. A faulty overhead line meant very limited trains between Zwolle and Meppel, which forms part of the route between Zwolle and Leeuwarden, NU.nl reports.

According to ProRail, about half a kilometer of overhead line was pulled down by a train. This brought train traffic on the route to a complete standstill for a time. From around 6:30 p.m. a limited number of trains could run on one rail on the route. 

Fewer trains are running to and from Schiphol on Thursday morning due to a signal failure. Travelers are advised to take extra travel time into account. NS expects the problem to be solved by 10:30 a.m.

A broken train also means that no Intercity Direct trains are running between Schiphol and Breda. When this will be fixed is not yet clear.

Other problems on the track include fewer Sprinters between Tilburg in Boxtel, and no Intercity trains between Eindhoven and Weert. Both these issues should be resolved by 10:30 a.m., according to NS.

Until 2030 the government is pushing 350 million euros into renovating train stations Amsterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Zuid, to make them able to run more trains and therefore transport more passengers, State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven of Infrastructure and Water Management said to Dutch parliament, NOS reports.

NS wants to reduce crowds in rush hour trains by making train tickets for outside rush hour cheaper. That will cost 35 million euros that NS does not have. CEO Roger van Boxtel is therefore turning to the government, RTL Nieuws reports.

Passengers that travel outside rush hour should pay 40 percent less for their tickets, Van Boxtel thinks. This will encourage people to avoid trains during their busiest point and thereby result in a better distribution of passengers.