RET

After a nationwide 24-hour long strike on Tuesday, public transit employees are back at work. The transit companies managed to restart their services without major issues.

NS reports no strike-related faults or delays on its website. The only delays reported have to do with planned track maintenance on the Leeuwarden-Meppel route, which will last until Sunday. 

A bus hit a lamppost on Stadshoudersweg in Rotterdam on Wednesday after one of the passengers assaulted the bus driver. It is still unclear why the man attacked the woman driving the bus, the police said. She did not sustain serious injuries. None of the passengers were hurt, RTL Nieuws reports.

According to Rotterdam public transit service RET, the man attacked the driver after he asked her question. "She answered his question and got a slap in the face and a punch in the stomach", a spokesperson said to the broadcaster. "She was so shocked that she hit a lamppost."

Monday will be a chaotic day for people who commute to work by public transport. NS announced that it will join an early morning strike held by city- and regional public transit companies, AD reports.

The public transit companies are protesting for freezing the retirement age at 66. For that reason they will strike from 6:00 a.m. for 66 minutes, trade union CNV Vakmensen said. The strike will likely also cause delays after its end.

Subway station Stadhuis in Rotterdam was evacuated on Tuesday afternoon after asbestos was released during construction work. The station is still completely closed and no subways are running through it. Rotterdam public transit company RET calls on travelers who were in the station on Tuesday to report to the company, RTL Nieuws reports.

A difficult Thursday rush hour was expected to cap an annoying work day for many in the Netherlands. Trouble on the railroad, confusion at the airport, and traffic jams were likely to continue well into the evening.

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.

Public transit operators in the Netherlands are taking concrete steps to go cashless this year. RET, which operates the Rotterdam subway network, is already upgrading all its turnstiles to accept more payment options than just th public transport card. Within a matter of months, Rotterdam travelers will be able to pay with their mobile phones, director Pedro Peters said in his new year's speech on Tuesday, AD reports.

About 100 people were given a public transport ban last year for being violent, aggressive or traveling without a ticket multiple times. A public transit ban is issued in cooperation with the police and Public Prosecutor. It bans the recipient from trains, subways, trams and buses for a limited period of a few weeks

Rotterdam public transporter is becoming more financially sustainable. From 2017 the transporter will no longer need subsidies from the government to keep its subways and trams running, a first for the Netherlands

A public bus crashed into an office building at the intersection of Vaanweg and Strevelsweg in Rotterdam on Tuesday morning. Twelve people were injured. It seems that the bus driver lost control of the bus after falling ill. "Someone shouted: 'she is unwell, the driver is unwell!' And at that moment the bus started driving faster", one passenger said

Tram traffic in the North and the center of Rotterdam was put on hold yesterday after an industrial accident occurred during maintenance work. One RET maintenance worker had to be brought to hospital after he received an electric shock, the NOS reports.