Fewer trains will run in Randstad on Monday morning. The NS is struggling, among other things, with outages on airlines at Schiphol and The Hague. The trains are canceled on the last day of October, in which the Rover passenger organization has already had an impressive number of complaints.
Fewer trains will run around Schiphol on Monday morning, NS said. Rail operator ProRail reports that the contractor will inspect the damage to the overhead lines and that the disturbance will be limited as much as possible.
NS reports on its website that the outage will last until approximately 2:00 pm. The problems have consequences for rail traffic in much of the Randstad conurbation.
Also, there is a signal and switch failure between Almere and Leiden which is expected to last until noon. In addition, an airline between The Hague Central and Leiden Central is down. There are fewer intercity trains until 2pm.
Travelers complained despite the fall break
Problems on the railways led to a sharp increase in complaints throughout the month. Rover received more complaints from NS travelers in October than in September. According to the travel organization, this has never happened before. Despite the fall break, travelers complained about fewer trains, which in many cases were even shorter.
In total, Rover received 2,650 complaints in October. In September, normally the busiest month for railways, the number was 1,749. The director of the Rover Freek Bos euphemistically calls it “quite special”. “You expect people to report less during the fall holidays, because they don’t go to school, study or work.”
Most hassles on the route between Zwolle and Utrecht
Travelers faced major disruptions on the route between Zwolle and Utrecht. About a quarter of the complaints related to this process. According to Bos, this is because NS has started running more, but shorter, trains. “Furthermore, 10 percent of these complaints came over the weekend. This is surprising, because NS often points to rush hours as the main cause of passenger complaints.”
Another reason for the congestion on this route is that this is the only connection with the Randstad. From to accident rail traffic between Dronten and Lelystad is not possible with a high-voltage cable. This makes the route between Zwolle and Lelystad inaccessible until mid-December.
Rover believes NS should be able to let go of its own rules
Train passengers also have many problems on the route between Deventer and South Amsterdam. “They are related to work activities. NS communicated this and started using fewer trains. But those trains were often very short. In that regard, NS should have advised passengers better, for example to travel outside rush hours. “says Bunch.
He therefore wants the carrier to reconsider their decision to use shorter trains. “NS has to pull out all the stops to solve the problems. Rules of their own have to be issued about how long a train can be with only one conductor,” says the director of the Rover.
“Of course there are unforeseen circumstances, such as the accident in Dronten or work elsewhere. But these complaints indicate that the problems in NS are greater.”
