Bus services began getting back to normal nationwide on Tuesday but train users still face major disruption because of the wintry weather.

And while most major roads are now passable, the ANWB motoring organisation is warning commuters that conditions are still very slippery because of sleet and snow. In Limburg, the sleet has turned into rain, the KNMI weather bureau said.
At Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport many flights are still being delayed and some, mainly European flights, have been cancelled.
For the third day in a row, Dutch Rail has told passengers only limited stop train services will be operating and all intercity trains have been cancelled. Passengers are being urged to avoid using the train if possible.

Frozen rails
A number of passengers were forced to spend the night on Utrecht station because they could not get home.
Track operating company ProRail says most of the problems are due to frozen points because the automatic heating systems do not work properly in the snow, the Volkskrant reports on Tuesday.
Most of the rail network’s 6,500 points – where track systems cross over each other – are equipped with tiny gas heaters, but the snow has extinguished the flame in many of them, causing the rails to stick in the same position.
To compensate, officials have switched the points to run slow train services only. Both NS and ProRail are 100% state-owned but treated as private companies.
Criticism
MPs on Monday called on the government to invest more in the railways. ‘In the autumn services stop because of a few leaves on the line and now in winter thanks to a few snow flakes. When does this nonsense stop?,’ the Volkskrant quoted CDA MP Ger Koopmans as saying.
And Socialist MPs called for an investigation into ProRail’s finances. ‘ProRail contracts out as much maintenance as it can to keep costs as low as possible and make more money. Now you can see that skimping on maintenance is not okay,’ said one SP MP in the Telegraaf.
Public transport users lobby group Rover has also criticised the railway companies for not keeping passengers properly informed and for not being sufficiently prepared for the snow.
More snow and sleet is forecast for eastern parts of the country on Tuesday.