The Dutch railway will remain ‘vulnerable’ during wintry weather but Dutch Rail (NS) and track operator ProRail did not help matters during the current cold snap by the late introduction of schedule adjustments to cope with the conditions, transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen told parliament in a briefing on Tuesday.

The NS and ProRail assumed on Thursday of last week that there would be three to five centimetres of snow. When the forecast was increased on Friday morning to between 10 and 15 centimetres, it was too late to change the timetables automatically, Schultz van Haegen told parliament.
Drivers and conductors had to be told about the changes individually which cost time and delayed the availability of information to passengers, she said.
Once the new schedule was up and running, it did provide ‘a predictable and reliable service’ from Sunday onwards, the Volkskrant quotes the minister as saying.
Schultz van Haegen says she will be consulting ‘experts’ from countries with experience of extreme weather conditions to find solutions to the chaos on the railways whenever it snows.
But she also says the railways will remain ‘vulnerable’ because of the ‘intensive use of the trains and track’.
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