More than two hundred passengers were trapped on a train near Zevenbergschen Hoek for six hours on Tuesday. The train broke down and came to a stop just after the Moerdijk Bridge in Brabant. Help was long in coming. The first evacuation train that would take them further, was eventually unable to move on either.
As a result, passengers had to transfer twice to another train, to eventually end up in Breda. All in all, that took six hours.
Because the train came to a halt, the passengers also got stranded in an approaching train. They were evacuated after an hour and a half. According to a spokesperson for rail manager ProRail, there were a total of 400 to 500 victims.
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Nassar Chakir is one of more than 200 passengers who were trapped on the first train that ran aground. He was on his way from his hometown The Hague to his work in Tilburg.
“It all went so slowly, we didn’t get much information. The first half hour we heard nothing, another half hour later we heard that a catenary would be broken and another half hour later we heard that the train would not continue. In such a situation, you expect them to have an evacuation plan, right?”
The NS deployed an evacuation train to take the passengers further and the passengers transferred to that train. “The moment we were in it, it turned out that the train could not continue and we had to wait for hours again.”
They couldn’t move at that moment. “The doors were closed. On one side of the track was a high fence with the highway behind it. On the other side, four railroad tracks and a high fence.”
According to him, the atmosphere was initially friendly. “But after a few hours it was less pleasant. People grumbled and called the NS to find out more. Everyone was angry with the NS.”
After six hours, they finally landed on a third train that took them to Breda. “According to the intercom, we would be received in Breda, so that we could tell our story. But there was no one to receive us there, no aftercare at all. I traveled on to my work in Tilburg.”
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A spokesperson for ProRail says that the driver braked for unknown reasons and then stopped due to a technical defect. They find out exactly what happened. “The location was difficult to approach because it in the middle of nowhere was, so no buses could come to that place. The fact that the evacuation train was ultimately unable to run caused even more delays.”
ProRail and the NS apologize for the inconvenience experienced by travelers. “This did not go well, waiting almost six hours for a train is really too long. We understand that people really hate this. If people want to tell their story, they can do so through public information from the NS.”
There are still no trains running on the route between The Hague and Tilburg on Tuesday evening. According to the NS Travel Planner, the problems should be resolved by 7.30 pm.
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