UpdateTravelers should also take into account the cancellation of trains and delays on Thursday, especially in the Northern Netherlands. The NS advises travelers to consult the journey planner shortly before departure. Before trains can run again, the damage caused by storm Poly must be repaired.
A spokesman for ProRail reports that there are still problems, especially around Groningen. It is expected that work will continue here well into the night, but the exact time will depend ‘on what we find’. There are also problems between Leiden and Haarlem. There are 22 fallen trees on this route, according to ProRail. “It entails a lot of work, but we are working with man and power.”
A concert by the German band Rammstein is planned for a total of 110,000 visitors in the Stadspark in Groningen on Thursday and Friday evening. The ProRail spokesperson has not received any signals that the transport of visitors could become problematic.
Train traffic has restarted in parts of the country. This includes the trains between Schiphol and Amsterdam, and the high-speed line between Amsterdam and Rotterdam and trains on the Den Helder and Alkmaar route.
Bringing trains home
More trains will also run on routes to and from Utrecht, just like between Amersfoort and Assen and between Weesp and Zwolle. According to the NS, these are ‘home trains’ that are mainly intended to bring stranded travelers to their destination. On the routes where no trains run, NS advises travelers to use alternative transport.
Travelers can check on the NS website on Thursday whether they are entitled to compensation for the costs incurred.
Rijkswaterstaat reports that people are working hard to ‘get everything off the road’. During the day, trees and branches ended up on various roads, for example on the A7 from Heerenveen to Groningen. The road is still closed here between Leek and Hoogkerk. A spokesman suspects that ‘most of it will be off the road’ on Thursday, but road users are advised to look carefully at the traffic information before departure.
When storm Poly turned out to be a lot more intense than expected on Wednesday morning and the KNMI declared code red, ProRail decided to halt train traffic in the Northern Netherlands.
On Wednesday, ProRail carried out a ‘track inspection’. ‘NS drivers then drive at low speed on the closed railway lines, in order to inspect the condition of the track’, ProRail says. It is checked whether there are trees or branches on the rails or whether the overhead line is damaged. ‘These inspection trains make it clear how extensive the damage is, after which our contractors can start cleaning up and repairing.’
Large branches
ProRail does not yet have a good idea of the extent, but there is extensive damage in several places. “Given the enormous wind force and the size of the storm area, we expect it to take a lot of time to remove fallen trees and repair tracks and overhead wires.”
Trees have ended up on the track in Zaandam, Bennebroek and Wormerveer, among others. Large branches are involved in various places, for example at Hoorn and Oosterbeek. As a result, various routes where trains were still running were canceled, such as Haarlem-Leiden.
Incident responders from ProRail inspected the track while running on the Hanze line. They found, among other things, a roof of a truck that had blown onto the track. The incident responders immediately cleared away all objects that were on the track of the Hanze line.
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