A new month might be right around the corner, but the situation at Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) remains unchanged; on Monday morning, the public transport operator announced it was cutting even more services from its timetable as a result of severe staff shortages.
In spite of the various attempts NS has made to recruit new employees and fill job vacancies, the rail company continues to suffer from a shortage of workers. It wasn’t that long ago that the company announced that some of the timetable cuts scheduled for December 2022 were being brought forward to November 7, as a result of these shortages.
Now, NS has announced additional cuts, saying even more trains will be scrapped from November 7. On its website, the company writes that it hopes these changes will lead to fewer last-minute delays and cancellations. “Unfortunately, we still suffer from a shortage of employees,” NS says. “The last thing we want is to run fewer trains. Yet it is necessary: passengers are now too often faced with cancelled trains.”
The timetable changes that have already been confirmed affect a large part of the Netherlands, with several weekday and rush hour services between a number of the major Dutch cities set to disappear from next week.
NS advises passengers to plan journeys shortly before their intended departure via the NS app. For more information about the new timetable and to stay up to date with any last-minute changes to the schedule, check the NS website.