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The Netherlands has come to a near-standstill on public transport. A 24-hour national strike, called by the trade unions in protest at the cabinet’s planned cuts to social security, has left stations deserted and almost no trains, buses, trams, metros or ferries running across the country. Here is how the day is unfolding.
Almost nothing running
There are hardly any trains at all, and NS stations stood empty on Wednesday morning. Buses, trams and the metro are not running in large parts of the country, including The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, though the picture varies by region. International trains are affected too, with services such as the Eurostar, the EuroCity Direct and the ICE to Germany all cancelled.
Though not all companies took part in it. The regional operator Arriva has tried to run what it can, though it too is cancelling many buses, and there are isolated exceptions: in Sittard, a handful of buses are still running.
A surprisingly calm rush hour
For all the disruption to public transport, the feared traffic chaos on the roads did not really materialise. According to the ANWB motoring organisation and Rijkswaterstaat, the morning rush was not much busier than on an average Wednesday. Rijkswaterstaat measured a peak of 206 kilometres of tailbacks, only “slightly busier” than normal, and said traffic was flowing well on most roads.
ANWB suggests that it turned out not to be such a big issue because people planned around it. “It looks as though a great many people have adjusted their day and are working from home,” a spokesperson said. “They are certainly not taking to the roads en masse.” One exception to the smooth traffic is the A28 near Nijkerk, which remains closed in both directions, but for an unrelated reason: precautionary repairs to a bridge.
Car-share apps do a roaring trade
Where people did need to get around, many turned to alternatives, and it shows. Car-sharing platforms report a sharp jump in use. SnappCar speaks of thousands of extra trips, while MyWheels booked almost four times as many rides as on a normal Wednesday. Greenwheels also saw demand rise, with users reserving cars earlier than usual. Ride-hailing was busy too, with reports of Uber bookings surging as travellers looked for a way around the strike.
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Improvisation, and confusion
This called for some creative solutions. With the ferries across Amsterdam’s IJ not sailing, residents of Amsterdam-Noord had to find other ways across the water. One skipper stepped in to ferry a few schoolchildren and their parents over the IJ in an improvised boat, while another carried passengers across for five euros a head.
Some who did not read the news in advance had to face it unexpectedly the day of. On the ferry between Velsen-Noord and Velsen-Zuid near IJmuiden, a young man turned up hoping to cross with his tractor. “It’s not running at all today? Is there a national strike? For the ferry too?” he asked a regional broadcaster, before deciding to turn back. In Zwolle, some travellers turned up at the station and tried to travel anyway, sometimes unaware of the strike and sometimes in hope against the odds. And at Amsterdam Centraal, a Spanish couple hoping to take the Eurostar to Paris said they had been given no warning at all. “We didn’t get a single message from the operator that there was a strike and that the train wasn’t running,” they said.
Why they are striking
The strike is one of a series of union actions against the government’s plans to cut spending on social security. Although the cabinet has announced it will reverse part of those cuts, the unions say that does not go far enough and want them scrapped entirely, so the planned actions are going ahead. It is not only public transport: there are strikes at metal and construction companies this week too, and port workers had already walked out earlier.
Not all of those on strike are union members. In one telling case, the regional broadcaster L1 spoke to a driver on bus route 332 who is not in a union, and therefore receives no strike pay. He had come to work anyway. “I won’t have to carry many people, because most assume I’m not driving,” he said. “But I’m here, because otherwise I don’t get paid.”
What travellers should do
The strike runs for a full 24 hours, so disruption will continue through the day and services may take time to return to normal even once it ends. Anyone who needs to travel should assume trains, buses, trams, metros and ferries are not running, check before setting out, and consider working from home, sharing a car or arranging another way to get around. For up-to-the-minute detail, travellers are best advised to follow the live updates from NS and the regional operators, and the national broadcasters, as the situation develops.