public transit

ProRail will rebuild and revamp large parts of Amsterdam Central Station, Amsterdam Amstel Station and Schiphol Station in the coming years, a spokesperson for ProRail confirmed to NU.nl after reports in the Telegraaf. This is necessary to accommodate the new 10-minute train schedule ProRail and NS plan to implement.

The VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie are now really very almost done with their government agreement, ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers said to NOS on Friday afternoon. But he thinks the four parties will have to meet again on Monday.

There will be no meetings over the weekend. The ChristenUnie respects the Sunday rest. "And on Saturday I have other plans", Segers said to the broadcaster.

The VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie plan to invest over 2 billion euros into asphalt, public transit and waterways in the coming years, sources confirmed to RTL Nieuws after reports in the Telegraaf.

A large part of that money is destined to address places where traffic jams often arise, for example on the A1, A12 and A12 highways. The new government is also investing 100 million euros into bicycle paths.

Avid fans of the Dutch Royals braved the early morning cold and mist to make sure they have a good spot along the route the Dutch King and Queen will take from Noordeinde Palace to the Ridderzaal in The Hague for Budget Day. The first spectators arrived at the palace at 6:30 a.m on Tuesday, according to ANP.

On Wednesday morning NS and ProRail started an experiment on running trains on the busy route between Amsterdam, Utrecht, Den Bosch and Eindhoven every 10 minutes. The experiment went well during the first morning rush hour, according to the rail organizations, AD reports.

According to NS, the waiting times for travelers were a bit shorter this morning. "The crowds were similar to a normal working day", NS said. A spokesperson added: "We had no cancelations or significant delays. We'll keep a close eye on it for the rest of the day."

NS's group return tickets were intended to encourage families and football teams to take the train to their destination instead of a car, but instead the tickets became easy fraud for bargain hunters and brokers, AD reports. NS estimates that between 15 thousand and 20 thousand travelers use these group tickets fraudulently each month, according to the newspaper.

No trains are running between Rotterdam Central Station and Den Haag Central Station this week, due to maintenance work on the rails. The work started on Monday and is expected to take until Sunday, NS said on its website.

NS advises travelers to detour, for example via Gouda, or use the Randstad Rail. One commuter train will travel between Den Haag Central Station and Den Haag HS. Buses are deployed on some routes. 

The rail company advises travelers to take extra travel time of between 15 minutes and 30 minutes into account. 

A serious shortage of bus drivers is looming just over the horizon, NOS reports after speaking to the Dutch public transit companies. Some companies even doubt whether they will be able to keep all their bus lines running in the near future.

A major signal interruption in the Randstad means that no train traffic is possible to and from The Hague Central Station. Passengers have been stuck on a train near the station for over an hour, according to AD. 

The disruption is also causing delays and problems in the rest of the Randstad region, according to NS. Train traffic to and from Leiden Central Station is also at a standstill. And no Intercity-direct trains are traveling on the HSL route between Rotterdam and Amsterdam. 

A toddler was beaten in a seemingly random attack on a bus in Eindhoven two weeks ago, the police write on Facebook. A witness reported the incident. The police are examining footage of the incident and are looking for more witnesses.

According to the police, the incident happened on June 17th at around 7:45 p.m. on a line 4 bus traveling from the Eindhoven station to Heesterakker. 

No trains will be stopping at Brussels Central Station today following a small explosion there on Tuesday night, NS International said on its website. The explosion happened around 8:30 p.m. The Belgian authorities had control of the situation very quickly and no one bystanders were injured. The suspected perpetrator was gunned down by soldiers almost immediately after the explosion, ANP reports.