NS

A suspicious package was found at the provincial house on Visarenddreef in Lelystad on Monday morning. The police closed down the area around the building, including part of the nearby train station. Multiple banners with slogans about nature reserve Oostvaardersplassen were also found hanging on the provincial house, a spokesperson for the Midden Nederland police said to NU.nl.

The police are allowing pedestrians into the train station, but motorists are being stopped, according to Omroep Flevoland.

Arnhem Central Station was briefly evacuated on Wednesday morning after a fire alarm in the station went off. A manual fire alarm was pulled in the public transport terminal, a spokesperson for the fire brigade said to Omroep Gelderland.

As a precaution, NS decided to evacuate the entire station and halt train traffic to and from Arnhem. 

The fire department investigated and found no sign of fire. The building was declared safe around 10:30 a.m. and travelers were allowed to enter the station. Train traffic was restarted and was largely back on schedule around 11:15 a.m.

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.

Hundreds of Oss residents gathered at a rail crossing on Braakstraat in Oss on Thursday evening to commemorate four children who were killed in a collision between a train and a cargo bike at the crossing that morning. They left mountains of flowers and stuffed animals, and lit candles for the children, AD reports.

A delegation from NS, ProRail and the Dutch government are in Germany this week to make a 4 hour train trip from Amsterdam to Berlin a reality within the next few years. They hope that shorter travel times will make the rail a real alternative to flying within Europe, NOS reports.

With schools reopening in the central region of the Netherlands on Monday, and schools in the south already open after summer vacation, NS expects that trains will again be extra crowded during the coming weeks, RTL Nieuws reports.

A major signal and switch failure that brought train traffic around Amsterdam and Schiphol to a standstill on Tuesday evening, has been fixed. Train traffic is back on track, though travelers in and around Amsterdam should take into account that trains may be more crowded than usual on Wednesday morning, NS said.

The Dutch rail network, which spans over 7,300 kilometers, is basically full, according to ProRail. But there is little point to building new railway lines, as there is almost no more room for them, the rail manager said when presenting the rail capacity distribution for 2019, ANP reports.

There will be no trains running between Utrecht and Rotterdam Centraal, and between Utrecht and The Hague this week. This line is closed until August 6th due to maintenance on the track around Gouda, NOS reports.

Around 75 percent of the railway around Gouda will be renewed, which includes replacing points, rails, sleepers and rail gravel. This is only possible if train traffic is completely halted. NS and ProRail chose this week for this task, as it is summer holidays and many people are away on vacation. 

Dutch rail company NS is benefiting from the high property prices in the Netherlands. The company recently sold 16 hectares of land in Utrecht for an estimated amount between 90 million and 125 million euros, the Telegraaf reports.

The property, Cartesiusdriehoek, was sold to real estate developers MRP and Ballast Nedam. NS refused to comment on the amount involved. The rail company previously used the land to store and maintain train wagons.

MRP and Ballast Nedam plan to build 2,600 houses, a school and hospitality space on the property. 

Dutch rail company NS and its Austrian counterpart OBB are planning to put the night train back into service in the Netherlands. They want the train, that's equipped with beds for passengers to sleep in during their journey, to depart from Amsterdam Centraal and connect to the European network of night trains, NU.nl reports.