A thousand travelers evacuated from a stationary train near Gouda after four hours

A train has been standing still for hours in the vicinity of Gouda tonight. The train, with almost a thousand passengers, was on its way from The Hague to Enschede. Around 10 p.m., passengers were evacuated to two other trains.

At 5.55 pm the train left The Hague for Enschede, but it came to a stop just before Gouda station. A spokesman for the NS says that there was a defect in the air pressure system. She calls it exceptional that it took so long for a solution to be found. “The train was in an awkward place, which made it complicated to evacuate travelers.”

A traveler reports from the stationary train:

Initially, it was planned that another train would tow away the defective device, but that failed due to a complicated technical problem in the defective train. Subsequently, two other trains had to arrive to evacuate the passengers. “That took a lot of time. We hope that travelers can quickly continue their journey,” said the spokesperson.

Because of the incident, no trains have been running between Zoetermeer East and Gouda all evening. The NS has deployed buses.

Traveler Paula Zimmerman is on one of the evacuation trains. There was no movement there for a long time, but at 10.45 pm it left for The Hague. “I live in Breukelen, but I have no idea what time I will be home.”

Zimmerman praises the “dear conductor” who kept travelers informed of the situation for the first hour. “But he also had no idea. The train could not continue, but it was not clear what was wrong. Eventually we received a message that a tug train was coming. That took a long time and from that moment on we received no more information.”

According to Zimmerman, the atmosphere on the train was good at first, but when phone batteries started to run out and the toilet became more and more crowded, the mood changed. The travelers also sat in the dark for hours. “At a certain point there was a grumbling. I also think people were hungry. I haven’t eaten myself yet.”

As Zimmerman talks about the situation, she learns from an employee who assisted in the evacuation that the other evacuation train is going to Gouda. “That’s a shame, because we were of course on our way there. I now also hear some ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ around me from people who would have liked to have been on that other train.”

On Twitter, many travelers shared their experiences from the stranded train. For example, someone writes that a man has to miss his wife’s delivery and someone else distributes cake. Another traveler says he almost faints because he hasn’t eaten since lunch.