With the second day of train strikes hitting the province of South Holland on Friday, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) has warned that disruption and delays to train travel should be expected across the country.
NS and ANWB warn strikes will disrupt travel across the Netherlands
Last week, trade unions confirmed that NS workers would stage a walkout after negotiations over salaries and benefits broke down earlier this month. Day one of the strike hit the northernmost regions of the Netherlands on Wednesday, but with day two taking place in South Holland on Friday, significant disruption to train travel is expected across various major Dutch cities within the Randstad.
On Thursday afternoon, NS warned that Friday’s strike would have “major consequences” for national rail connections. In a statement on its website, the rail company wrote: “The strike area plays an important role in our timetable, which means that travellers in the rest of the country are also affected.”
The Royal Dutch Touring Club (ANWB) has also raised concerns about the effect of Friday’s strikes on travel as a whole, warning that it could lead to chaos at Schiphol Airport. "I am concerned about Schiphol," Arnoud Broekhuis, spokesperson for the ANWB Traffic Center, told De Telegraaf. “If you have to catch a flight, you have a problem. It will be a coming and going of cars. In the past, we have also seen traffic chaos when travellers were taken to the airport en masse due to a strike,”
South Holland train strikes to end at 4am on August 27
From 4am on Friday, August 26 through to 4am on Saturday morning, no trains will run throughout most of the province, which includes cities such as Leiden, The Hague, and Rotterdam. Passengers have been advised by both NS and travellers’ association Rover to adjust travel plans accordingly and stay home if possible.
NS will not be implementing any rail replacement bus services. Trains will be running from and between stations in Alphen aan den Rijn, Hoofddorp, Gouda, Haarlem and Lage Zwaluwe - and these stations will be the final stopping points for trains with a destination in South Holland. Continental services, such as the Thalys and the Eurostar, will be running as usual.