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.
train station
Oct 31 '19 15:20
Sep 10 '19 11:30
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.
Aug 20 '19 17:00
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.
Jul 31 '19 07:35
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.
Jun 11 '19 08:01
The government is investing 3.5 million euros into counter-terrorism measures at six train stations in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht, among others, the Telegraaf reported on Tuesday. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management would not say exactly which train stations are involved, according to the newspaper.
May 1 '19 07:40
A baby was saved from the train tracks at the Anna Paulowna station in Noord-Holland after it somehow fell between a platform and a train. The train conductor managed to collect the baby from the narrow space while an engineer flagged down two police officers on duty in a squad car at the station, police said on Instagram.
“Immediately [we] jumped out of the car and went there,” one officer said. By the time the police arrived at the platform, the young child had been saved. Paramedics were also dispatched to the scene around 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday.
Apr 24 '19 14:20
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.
Feb 28 '19 08:39
NS will renovate another 200 of the total 396 train stations in the Netherlands. The railway company is reserving 65 million euros for these projects for the next five years, NS director Roger van Boxel announced during the presentation of the annual figures in Bilthoven on Thursday, ANP reports.
Dec 21 '18 16:00
NS's plan to close access gates to stations, so that travelers have to check in with their public transit card before they can enter the station, is a success. The number of ticket-less riders decreased by a third since 2015, and the number of reports about aggression decreased by a quarter this past year, the rail company said, the Volkskrant reports.
Nov 6 '18 15:50
A heavy glass plate fell on the head of a passerby at a train station in Oisterwijk on Tuesday morning. The man was taken to hospital with a major head injury. The glass plate weighs around 91 kilograms, according to the Telegraaf.
Two workers were replacing the glass plates, which are around five centimeters thick, on the top of the station's stairs. At around 11:00 a.m. one of the plates fell, and landed on the head of a man coming up the stairs.
Oct 22 '18 07:44
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.
May 22 '18 16:00
Hans Jansen aims to play piano at each of the 16 pianos in Dutch train stations on Tuesday. He started in Maastricht at 5:00 a.m., and if all goes well, will end in Leeuwarden at 11:20 p.m. "I hope that today, 22 May, will be proclaimed the Day of the Station Piano", he said to broadcaster NOS.
Jansen has been playing piano as a hobby for some time now. His idea for this record attempt came to him after a video of him playing a cover of Wicked Games at the Zwolle train station went viral.
Apr 21 '17 18:30
The Brabant faction of political party CDA joined the call for a intercity train station at the rapidly growing Eindhoven Airport. According to the party, the train station would not only improve accessibility to the airport, but also to the larger region around it, Omroep Brabant reports.
Briainport-region Eindhoven has been calling for a train station at the airport for some time. The CDA is now joining their voice to this call.
Dec 28 '16 14:59
Anis Amri, the main suspect behind an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin on December 19th, was almost certainly in Nijmegen on December 21st, the Public Prosecutor said, according to NOS. A man matching Amri's description can be seen on surveillance camera footage at Nijmegen train station.
Mar 24 '16 07:41
The central station in Maastricht was evacuated and closed down for several hours on Wednesday night due to a suspicious suitcase. It later turned out to be a false alarm.
Nov 20 '15 13:10
A suspicious package at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Zwolle led to the building being evacuated on Friday afternoon. An Explosive Ordnance Disposal squad is investigating. EOD teams are also investigating suspicious packages found in Huizen and Haarlem.
Sep 18 '15 14:32
The police are investigating the deaths of a 55 year old man and his 58 year old wife in Rotterdam
May 6 '15 16:53
A 32-year old man was arrested on Wednesday at the Roosendaal train station for threatening NS conductor's life, police states in a press release.
Mar 26 '15 16:02
A 34-year-old woman from Deventer was detained at a train station after throwing a debit card reader at the head of an NS employee on Wednesday, NU reports. The NS staff member managed to come away from the incident with just a sore jaw, police reported.
Nov 3 '14 14:28
According to Minister Ronald Plasterk of Internal Affairs, a number of terrorist attacks have been prevented in the Netherlands in recent months.
Oct 1 '14 17:31
The cost of building bike storage facilities at train stations is becoming too high for municipalities, according to the ChristenUnie MP Carla Dik-Faber. Dik-Faber has called for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) to contribute funds for construction and operation.
Sep 18 '14 10:21
The damage to the NS train station Vlaardingen-Oost after a car crashed into the building and subsequently burst into flame is so extensive that investigators cannot yet review it and cannot yet make estimations, the Algemeen Dagblad reports.
Apr 22 '14 08:10
Throughout the country, the digital departure boards on platforms at train stations are not displaying any information.
Apr 1 '13 14:56
Train stations should no longer be the responsibility of the Dutch Railways, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) said D66 Member of Parliament Stientje van Veldhoven on Monday. To make the division of roles in rail infrastructure more equal the ownership of stations should go to ProRail, the railway administrator.
