Not a single NS train in the entire country: ‘You don’t mean this, you don’t mean this!’

The usual bustle around the station. It runs, it rolls, it strolls. Inside Amsterdam Central you can just buy train tickets and it sounds familiar: “Dear travelers, the intercity to Alkmaar from thirteen o’clock fifty eight is not running.” It’s the understatement of the month.

Because the trains from 14.03 to Hoofddorp and from 14.05 to Vlissingen and the 14.08 to Breda are also not running. In fact: this Sunday afternoon there is not a single NS train running in the entire country. The cause is a malfunction in the IT system, which means that deviations from the timetable cannot be passed on digitally. Not to travelers – on the signs or in the app, but not internally either.

NS had no choice but to shut down the whole thing, a spokesperson said on the phone. It is impossible to say how many travelers have been affected by the malfunction, because “we are in the start-up after corona”, there has been no ‘normal Sunday’ for two years. But it concerns so many people that arranging replacement transport is ‘impossible’. Fifty passengers can fit in a bus. A thousand in an intercity.

Regional trains still run, although regional carriers cannot inform their passengers of changes in the timetable, because they use the NS systems for this. “Fortunately, Arriva is driving according to schedule,” a spokesperson said by telephone. “But our buses are now overcrowded, so stops are being skipped.”

Also read: No trains at all on Sunday

loaded bar

When she walks into Amsterdam Central, a tall blond woman laughs: „You are not serious, haha, you are not serious! Let’s go by car.” And she’s gone. Another begins to scroll, shaking his head, on his phone, looking for information that isn’t there. The NS employees with yellow vests also do not know when the malfunction will be resolved. Maybe at five. Maybe sooner. Maybe later. They do know how to point the way to the taxi, the metro, or the bus. Travelers to Utrecht, for example, can take the metro to Holendrecht and from there with bus 120. International train passengers are left behind, disappointed.

In the central IJ-passage, where, in addition to a packed bar, there is also an extinct barbershop, five German tourists are discussing what to do. Their 12:41 pm train to Hanover didn’t work, and now the question is whether they will wait here until five o’clock (or earlier or later) or find a cheap hotel for the night. They would like to smoke weed for another 24 hours, but one of them – a firefighter – has to start work on Monday at 6 am. She is looking for a place in a FlixBus on her phone.

Two others from this party are coming back from the toilet. It was free, in quotes, because a cup of coffee had to be bought for 3.50 euros. Ridiculous. What also disturbs Alice Kunze (“without age”, with crow’s feet) is that all information at the station is written in Dutch. “I don’t expect German, but English in a tourist city.”

However, the signs do not help the Dutch-speaking traveler any further. An information board alternately shows the following messages: “NS timetable almost back to normal. Plan your trip.” “Fault: No NS trains until the evening. Do not travel or look for other travel options.” “NS timetable is almost back to normal. Plan your trip.” “Fault: No NS trains until the evening. Do not travel or look for other travel options.” Etcetera.

Ukrainian refugees

Kim Göransson, a 27-year-old dental student, came this morning with two friends from Zandvoort for the legendary glow-in-the-dark mini golf on the Prins Hendrikkade. On the way there they were lucky, because when the outage started their train continued to the next stop: Amsterdam Central. Now they are here again hoping for better luck. But around half past three, NS reports that train traffic will probably only start around eight o’clock. So this will be the bus that leaves elsewhere in the city and takes three times as long.

Not so bad now, but if it happens during the week, Göransson does get grumpy. According to her friend, who regularly commutes between Zandvoort and Amsterdam and just lost with mini golf and (therefore) does not want his name in the newspaper, NS has been experiencing more and more disruptions since the corona pandemic. “Fat irritating.”

Also read about last year’s major outage: Train passengers are reluctant to accept: ‘What else should you do’

At the registration point for Ukrainian refugees of the Red Cross and the municipality of Amsterdam, the volunteers are empty-handed. On other days, they receive hundreds of refugees a day, who they then forward to reception centers across the country. Now they have next to nothing to do. They did put a nervous Ukrainian short track speed skater in a taxi to Schiphol this morning. The first taxi driver asked eighty euros. The second wanted sixty. The volunteers are outraged.

They are not too concerned about the refugees traveling by train today – there are such registration points at all major stations. And the chance that the refugees will be dropped in a hamlet is small, because most come to the Netherlands with an international train. But well organized is different.

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