ProRail will be carrying out work around Schiphol this weekend. As a result, no trains will be running on the route between Schiphol Airport and Leiden from Friday to Sunday. On Saturday the airport will be completely inaccessible by train, ANP reports.
On Saturday no trains will run between Amsterdam Sloterdijk and Schiphol, Amsterdam Zuid and Schiphol, and Schiphol and Leiden. The Intercity direct between Amsterdam Central Station and Rotterdam will also be down over the weekend.
This week is starting out rainy for the Netherlands and that could mean a busy rush hour on Monday morning, Weerplaza expects. The weather service expects between 200 and 400 kilometers of traffic jams on Dutch roads. Train traffic may also suffer under the weather, though indirectly through leafs falling on the track.
ProRail is accelerating the plan to run longer trains between Amsterdam and Nijmegen to implement it in the autumn of 2019, three years earlier than initially planned. The route is one of the busiest in the Netherlands, NU.nl reports.
A hurried mom left behind something very important at an Amersfoort station platform on Sunday - her two children. The mother entered the train helping a family member with their baggage, when the train suddenly departed. She quickly realized that her kids were still standing on the station platform.
A collision between a train and a person resulted far fewer trains running to and from Schiphol airport on Friday morning. Travelers should take considerable delays into account, a spokesperson for rail company NS said to NU.nl.
"There are problems especially from the south towards Schiphol", the spokesperson said. "There are far fewer trains from the direction of Rotterdam."
Passengers departing from Amsterdam, The Hague, Leiden and Zaandam can also take delays into account. The problems are expected to persist until at least 9:30 a.m., according to the NS site.
Rotterdam Central Station was evacuated for a short time on Monday morning after an automatic fire alarm was triggered. Hundreds of people were sent outside while the fire department investigated, NOS reports.
The fire brigade found no problems in the station. The fire department believes the alarm was triggered by repair work being done at the station, according to the broadcaster. The station was opened to the public a short time later.
According to NS, the false alarm had no consequences for train traffic.
Train traffic from Schiphol to Amersfoort was halted for a short time on Wednesday after an explosive was found near the tracks in Laren. Defense's explosives disposal team cleared it away, Het Parool reports.
The explosive experts believe it is an old explosive, likely dating from World War II. According to the police, there is no danger for local residents or the environment.
The explosive was found near Doctor Albert Schweitzerweg by people working on the railway.
Train traffic restarted around 2:30 p.m., about an hour after it was halted.
Arnhem Central Station was briefly evacuated on Wednesday morning after a fire alarm in the station went off. A manual fire alarm was pulled in the public transport terminal, a spokesperson for the fire brigade said to Omroep Gelderland.
As a precaution, NS decided to evacuate the entire station and halt train traffic to and from Arnhem.
The fire department investigated and found no sign of fire. The building was declared safe around 10:30 a.m. and travelers were allowed to enter the station. Train traffic was restarted and was largely back on schedule around 11:15 a.m.
People traveling through Utrecht Central Station on Monday morning should take delays into account due to police officers protesting for a better collective bargaining agreement, according to the police unions. Between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., the police will construct cordons around the station in a labor action they call "danger zone", NU.nl reports.
Travelers will only be able to enter and leave the station through these cordons. This will cause delays, according to police unions ACP, NPB, ANPV an VMHP.
The police will hinder train travelers at Utrecht Central Station during rush hour on Monday morning as part of their labor actions for a better collective bargaining agreement. Police officers will form a line at the station and passengers will only be able to enter through gaps in the line, ANP reports.
This action will happen between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Travelers should take delays into account, according to the police unions. According to the municipality of Utrecht, agreements were made with the police unions and the municipality expects no hindrance to the public.
With schools reopening in the central region of the Netherlands on Monday, and schools in the south already open after summer vacation, NS expects that trains will again be extra crowded during the coming weeks, RTL Nieuws reports.
The fault that caused a major disruption to train traffic in and around Amsterdam on Tuesday evening was the result of a software error, which was caused by a unique combination of circumstances after a shoplifter fled into the Schiphol tunnel, rail manager ProRail said, RTL Nieuws reports.
A major signal and switch failure that brought train traffic around Amsterdam and Schiphol to a standstill on Tuesday evening, has been fixed. Train traffic is back on track, though travelers in and around Amsterdam should take into account that trains may be more crowded than usual on Wednesday morning, NS said.
A 14-year-old boy was seriously hurt when he was hit by a train in Assen on Monday afternoon. The incident happened around 3:00 p.m. at the rail crossing on Spoorstraat. The police called it an accident, Dagblad van het Noorden reports.
Witnesses saw the boy lying on the platform after the accident. "Completely covered in blood, I dared not look any closer", one witness said to the newspaper.
Paramedics and a doctor brought by a trauma helicopter stabilized the boy at the scene and then rushed him to hospital by ambulance.
The Dutch rail network, which spans over 7,300 kilometers, is basically full, according to ProRail. But there is little point to building new railway lines, as there is almost no more room for them, the rail manager said when presenting the rail capacity distribution for 2019, ANP reports.
People who went to see the giant marionettes of Royal de Luxe in Leeuwarden on Sunday, were left stranded by a train disruption. A faulty overhead line meant very limited trains between Zwolle and Meppel, which forms part of the route between Zwolle and Leeuwarden, NU.nl reports.
According to ProRail, about half a kilometer of overhead line was pulled down by a train. This brought train traffic on the route to a complete standstill for a time. From around 6:30 p.m. a limited number of trains could run on one rail on the route.
There will be no trains running between Utrecht and Rotterdam Centraal, and between Utrecht and The Hague this week. This line is closed until August 6th due to maintenance on the track around Gouda, NOS reports.
Around 75 percent of the railway around Gouda will be renewed, which includes replacing points, rails, sleepers and rail gravel. This is only possible if train traffic is completely halted. NS and ProRail chose this week for this task, as it is summer holidays and many people are away on vacation.
On Friday Arriva is running an adjusted timetable with fewer trains on its routes in Groningen and Friesland. The public transit company is struggling with equipment problems caused by the persistent heat, Arriva said on its website.
"In order to be able to offer the most reliable timetable possible, Arriva is therefore working on a modified timetable on Friday", the company said. Arriva train traffic was also affected by these equipment problems on Thursday, according to RTV Noord.
Fewer trains are running to and from Schiphol on Thursday morning due to a signal failure. Travelers are advised to take extra travel time into account. NS expects the problem to be solved by 10:30 a.m.
A broken train also means that no Intercity Direct trains are running between Schiphol and Breda. When this will be fixed is not yet clear.
Other problems on the track include fewer Sprinters between Tilburg in Boxtel, and no Intercity trains between Eindhoven and Weert. Both these issues should be resolved by 10:30 a.m., according to NS.
The police stopped a train at Amsterdam Lelylaan station due to a suspicious situation at around 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning. The police action was done by 6:30 a.m. and train traffic resumed, according to NU.nl.
The stopped train was running between Hoorn and Schiphol. A platform at the station was evacuated. The police did not say what suspicious situation triggered the halt.
Trade unions FNV and CNV reached an agreement with regional public transporters about a new collective bargaining agreement. The nationwide strike that halted bus transport and some train traffic since Wednesday, is therefore over. From Monday everything will run as usual, the unions announced on Sunday, Omroep Brabant reports.
ProRail is going to use drones and 3D scans to map out trees along the Dutch railway. In this way the rail company wants to identify trees that are at risk of falling over or losing branches before they cause delays on the tracks, NOS reports.
Until 2030 the government is pushing 350 million euros into renovating train stations Amsterdam Centraal and Amsterdam Zuid, to make them able to run more trains and therefore transport more passengers, State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven of Infrastructure and Water Management said to Dutch parliament, NOS reports.
