NS is struggling with a national outage affecting its travel information on Wednesday morning. As a result, the travel information on signs at NS stations and on the NS app may be incorrect, the rail company said on its website on Wednesday morning.
There seems to be no way to determine which information is incorrect. Confused travelers can rely on information from conductors.
NS wants to use WiFi tracking to improve and expand its app that finds empty seats on a train. The current methods used are too imprecise. The rail company is waiting for the Dutch Data Protection Authority to green light this plan, Udo Oelen, NS' privacy director, said to Trouw.
The Dutch government is pushing over a billion euros into improving accessibility within the Netherlands. Schiphol Station will undergo major renovations for 237 million euros, and a high speed train line will soon link the northern cities of Leeuwarden and Groningen with the rest of the country, Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen and State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven of Infrastructure and Water Management said in a letter to parliament.
The government can solve the nitrogen emission problem by making public transit a more attractive option with a massive investment, according to NS and ProRail. The rail manager and -company propose that the government invest over 20.6 billion euros in the railways until 2040, for dozens of improvements, AD reports.
The organizations want to shorten the travel time from Leeuwarden and Groningen to the Randstad by making adjustments to the Hanze line, for example. Train journeys from Twente, Nijmegen and Vlissingen can also be up to 30 minutes faster with specific adjustments
A 63-year-old train conductor was attacked from behind by a man traveling without a ticket in Breda late in September. The man hit her so hard on the back of the head that she immediately lost consciousness. The police are asking for the public's aid in identifying the suspect.
The conductor checked the man's ticket on the international train from Brussels to Amsterdam on September 28th. She found that he did not have a valid ticket. She took his ticket and told him to buy a new one in Breda. The man behaved aggressively towards the conductor and she left the coupe.
The government, ProRail, NS, Schiphol and the Amsterdam Transport Region are very nearly at an agreement regarding the expansion of Schiphol train station. The renovations, which will include larger access gates and a new bus station, are scheduled to start in 2022 and expected to cost some 500 million euros, AD reports based on draft plans the newspaper got a look at.
The some 700 thousand holders of an NS discount hours card will lose their right to discount in the evening rush hour from 2021. NS is cutting various subscription types, reducing the number form 22 to 11, and the evening rush hour discount is one of those to go, NOS reports.
According to NS, cutting discounts during evening rush hour - between 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. - will result in fewer travelers during this time and thus more available seats. Currently 1 in 14 evening rush hour travelers has a discount subscription.
NS made changes to its policy for regional timetable adjustments so that it can be more flexible in dealing with local snowfall. This should mean a reduction in train cancellations on snowy days, the rail company pledged in comments to the Telegraaf.
Previously, changes to regional timetables had to be made at least 12 hours in advance and applied to a whole section of a day. Now changes must be made at least four hours an advance, and apply for at least two hours.
Sven Romkes from Assen managed to just get a spot with his wheelchair in a packed train from Almere station to the north on Tuesday evening. But two young men decided they'd rather have his spot. They picked him up, wheelchair and all, and carried him off the train. Romkes was left on the platform, watching the intercity train to Leeuwarden leave without him, De Stentor reports.
NS is presenting its vision for new train interiors at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Tuesday. The new interior design plans, made with the help of architect company Mecanoo, are focused on squeezing as many people as possible into a train as comfortably as possible, in order to cope with the increasing number of passengers and the limited capacity on the tracks.
Damaged overhead lines between Hoofddorp and Leiden left three trains stranded on Thursday, ProRail reported. Around 1,400 passengers were evacuated. The stranded trains are currently being towed away.
"The contractor is currently inspecting the damage", ProRail said. "How long the repairs will take is not yet known." No trains are currently running between Hoofddorp and Leiden. "ProRail regrets the inconvenience for all travelers on this route."
There are far too few spaces for bicycles on the train to keep up with the growing number of public transit users that travel with their bikes, according to cyclists' union Fietsersbond and travelers' association Rover. They call on NS to take measures, especially now that cycling is increasingly being encouraged, the Telegraaf reports.
Dutch rail company NS and its Austrian counterpart OBB are working on an overnight train connection between Vienna and Amsterdam. OBB aims to run its 'Nightjet' trains between the two cities three times per week from 2021, the Telegraaf reports.
The train would be an extension of the OBB's current Nightjet passenger route between Vienna and Düsseldorf. The firm is also expected to announce service to Brussels.
If millions of euros aren't invested into upgrading railways and stations between Haarlem and Zandvoort, trains will no longer run to big events in Zandvoort like the Formula 1, NS and ProRail indicated according to a letter Haarlem alderman Robert Berkhout sent to the city council. According to a ProRail spokesperson, this is not an ultimatum, just an explanation of the actual situation, RTL Nieuws reports.
The public transit sector, cities and transport regions drew up long-term plans to make sure train transport can cope with the strong growth in passengers in the future. At least 20 billion euros will be needed for their plans, which span from 2020 towards 2040, the Telegraaf reports based on wish lists from the sector.
A train was stopped at Rotterdam Central Station on Monday because of a woman wearing a niqab. According to the police, NS inspectors asked for police aid because the woman refused to show her face to the inspectors so that they could check whether she had a valid ticket. The woman was not fined, NOS reports.
Dutch rail company NS will start discussions about a compensation scheme for the relatives of deported resistance fighters in the Second World War. The first meeting with representatives of this group is scheduled for October 3rd, Trouw reports.
In the summer months of June, July and August almost 917 thousand people took a train from the Netherlands to a foreign country, NS International announced on Thursday. That is a 13 percent growth in passenger numbers compared to the summer of last year, NU.nl reports.
The most overcrowded train in the country runs between Oss and 's-Hertogenbosch Oost, according to NS. This sprinter that departs at 7:43 a.m. is around 40 percent more crowded than the maximum capacity of the train every day, with the exception of the weekend. The train that runs on this rout at 8:31 a.m. is also very popular, running at 28 percent over capacity every day, NOS reports.
NS expects a record number of 36.7 million passengers in September, 1.7 million more than the same month last year. The rail company is taking various measures to cope with the increasing crowds.
Two trains were set on fire at the train station in Haarlem on Monday night. Bottles of combustible material were found on both trains and the police suspect arson.
The first fire was reported at 8:30 p.m. and had already been extinguished when the police arrived, the police said in a statement. The second fire was reported at 11:30 p.m. and was extinguished with the help of the fire department.
NS will soon start selling train tickets through companies like car-rentals, tour operators and hotels. According to the Dutch railway company, it is the first transporter in Europe to fully outsource part of its ticket sales to third parties, Financieele Dagblad reports.
The new NS partners will purchase train kilometers from the rail company and then re-sell them to their customers at their own discretion and price. The customer can then use the train through an app or fuel card, for example. In this way NS hopes to lure car users to the train.
After months of puzzling and work, ProRail announced its new train timetable for 2020. The main change is that more trains will run next year, also outside the Randstad. According to the rail manager, a new planning system means that the space on the track can be used even more efficiently next year, NOS reports.
Travelers association Rover wants rail manager ProRail and rail company NS to do more to make sure customers are inconvenienced as little as possible during rail works and breakdowns. The association made a number of recommendations on how to achieve this, including improving information provision to travelers, compensation for inconvenience, and using longer trains.
