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."
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.
Many train stations in the Netherlands are not built to handle the expected growth in traveler numbers in the coming years. In order to prevent unclear and even dangerous situations on overcrowded platforms, rail manager ProRail is drawing up an emergency plan to keep the crowds under control, NU.nl reports.
Passenger and freight transport on the Dutch rails is expected to increase by 40 percent by 2040. This means that more trains will have to run, and more tracks will have to be built in the coming years to cope with this growth.
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.
The largest bicycle parking garage in the world is opening in Utrecht on Monday. With 12,656 parking spaces, including 480 spaces for larger or oddly shaped bicycles like cargo bikes and tandems, the parking facility on Utrecht's station square easily breaks the previous record, held by a bike parking garage in Tokyo with 9,400 parking spaces, Trouw reports.
"From abroad, they look with jealousy at everything we do here for cycling", project leader Lidwien van Kessel of ProRail said to the newspaper. "We are at the forefront here."
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.
ProRail wants to ban smoking at all train stations in the Netherlands. If the rail manager has its way, all smoking zones will disappear at the some 400 stations within the next two years, a spokesperson said to the Telegraaf.
ProRail receives many complaints from travelers who are bothered by smokers, the spokesperson said. The company therefore does not want to wait for a national smoking ban. "That's why we take the lead ourselves." The rail manager is currently working on convincing all parties involved to support the plan.
With extremely hot weather expected in the coming days, rail manager ProRail and public works department Rijkswaterstaat are taking extra measures to ensure that traffic flows as smoothly as possible. Temperatures above 35 degrees are expected, which can cause problems on both the road and the tracks. A number of events are also taking measures, NOS and NU.nl report.
Due to multiple problems on the tracks on Monday afternoon and evening, NS expects a difficult morning rush hour on Tuesday. Some of the trains are at a different location than planned, which means that some scheduled trains may not run or may be shorter than normal due to a different composition, the company warns. Travelers are advised to consult the travel planner before departure.
Large crowds piled up at Utrecht Centraal on Monday evening after a collision between a train and a person took place hours earlier. The incident took place at the train station on track 16, and prompted the evacuation of platforms 15 through 18. Making matters worse, a national outage at one of the country's largest telecom firms hindered the ability to get train service back on schedule.
ProRail started doing adjustments to the tracks between Haarlem and Zandvoort, to prepare for the thousands of Formula 1 fans expected to attend the Grand Prix in Zandvoort next year. In the coming year a mountain of work needs to be done, but ProRail expects it to succeed. "We're doing it at F1 speed", the rail manager said in a statement.
The thunderstorms that crossed the Netherlands on Tuesday night caused damage throughout the country. Dozens of reports were received, most regarding fallen trees or roofs being blown from houses. One person was hospitalized after a tree fell on a moving car, NOS reports.
Stormy weather caused a lot of problems in the eastern parts of the Netherlands on Sunday. Streets in multiple towns flooded and a lightning strike brought train traffic between Zwolle and Olst to a halt. Lightning strikes also caused a number of small fires, RTL Nieuws reports.
Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow warning for the eastern half of the Netherlands on Sunday, warning of lightning strikes and large amounts of rainfall. Some places also faced large hailstones.
This week it will be announced whether the Zandvoort circuit will be allowed to organize a Grand Prix again for the first time since 1985 next May. To prevent the roads to the town completely overflowing, the circuit already announced that it wants Formula 1 fans to use public transport as much as possible. NS is keen to cooperate and already mapped a Formula 1 timetable.
Rail manager ProRail is going to invest 3.5 billion euros into building more train stations and renewing and modernizing existing ones over the next 10 years, ProRail CEO Pier Eringa announced with the rail manager's annual figures on Wednesday, NU.nl reports.
More train stations need to be built, especially as more and more residential areas are being built. Many municipalities already asked for their 'own' station, Eringa said. According to ProRail, there is room for about 20 new train stations, but they will only be built after negotiations with governments and financiers.
An explosion on a train in Nijmegen on Sunday, in which one man was killed, was caused by firework bombs that the victim took with him to take his own life, multiple independent sources told De Gelderlander.
Train traffic on a number of busy routes in the Randstad is heavily disrupted on Tuesday due to a broken overhead line on the tracks between Weesp and Amsterdam-Zuid. The problems will persist until at least 5:00 p.m., according to NS.
On Monday ProRail halted a controversial awareness campaign, called Victim Fashion - Created By Accident, just four days after launching it. According to the rail manager, the goal of the campaign - making young people aware that they should be careful around the tracks - has been achieved.
The campaign consisted of photos showing the tattered clothing of victims of railway accidents. It received a large deal of criticism, from NS, union FNV, and the relatives of victims, among others, according to NU.nl.
ProRail wants to run automated light rail trains between Schiphol and Amsterdam with extreme high frequencies - 30 times per hour. To achieve that, railways need to be cleared for this type of train. ProRail director Pier Eringa believes that these automated trains, which he compares to a city rail line like the S-Bahn in Berlin, will be needed to accommodate the increase in passengers between the Netherlands' capital and its main airport, Het Parool reports.
The Dutch railways will need substantial renovations in the coming years, otherwise it won't be able to handle the expected 40 percent passenger growth after 2030, ProRail warns. If nothing is done, the rail manager expects significant capacity problems around Schiphol and Amsterdam, NU.nl reports.
A power outage halted train traffic between Eindhoven and Boxtel for hours on Sunday afternoon. This caused chaotic situations at the train stations in Den Bosch and Eindhoven, with travelers complaining on social media about being stranded. Some travelers were stuck at the stations for over three hours, NU.nl reports.
