On Thursday, many Dutch people again came to Antwerp to avoid the lockdown in their own country. The extra traffic creates dangerous scenes on the road in the center of the city, as our photographer could see with his own eyes. It was also a turn of events in Antwerp Central, the federal police expects about 6,500 Dutch train passengers on Thursday.
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Source: Belgian
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The trek to Antwerp on Thursday led to traffic jams and slow driving, especially on the E19, including at the border crossing and Loenhout. The Flemish Traffic Center once again called on not to enter the Antwerp city center by car, but to leave it at one of the Park + Ride parkings outside the city.
Yet many day trippers again ignored this good advice and drove into the center of Antwerp en masse. This caused traffic jams on the Leien and dangerous situations at some busy points. Our photographer took up position at the Kipdorp Bridge and captured several near-collisions in five minutes.
Many Dutch people have also traveled to Antwerp by train in recent days. The federal police estimate that almost 6,400 Dutch tourists got off the train on Tuesday. On Wednesday, January 29, there were even more than 7,600 travelers. Another 6,500 Dutch train passengers are expected on Thursday.
In order to steer the flow of passengers in the right direction, the federal police works closely with Securail and the Antwerp police, among others. All services deploy additional staff. “In consultation with the NMBS, the trains to and from the Netherlands are spread over different platforms in order to separate the passenger flows,” said the federal police.
After the closure of the shops, many tourists, including many families with children, return to the Netherlands. From 6 p.m., the security services will focus more on crowd control in the station and on the platforms. “In the following hours it usually remains very busy with a younger traveler crowd, sometimes groups of young people who are somewhat under the influence of alcohol,” said the police. “The security services will continue to be present until the last trains to the Netherlands have left around 11 p.m..”
So far there have been no major incidents. At the beginning of January, there will be an evaluation of the operation with all services involved, led by the Crisis Center and in the presence of Antwerp Governor Cathy Berx.
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