Monday’s strike by rail workers at The Hague and Zwolle railway stations did not cause many problems for commuters although there may be knock-on effects later in the day, NS said just after 9am.

By 7.30am, 90% of trains were running on time, compared with up to 94% during a regular rush hour. According to the AD, 35 trains from The Hague’s central railway station were cancelled during the strike, which ran from 5am to 9am.

The union is campaigning for what it calls ‘an end to the break up of the NS’. It wants the NS, which is 100% state owned, to take part in tenders for regional train services, manage shops and catering facilities at stations itself and place two conductors on double-decker trains.

‘One conductor on a double-decker train is unworkable,’ union spokesman Henri Janssen said in a statement. ‘It leads to a lack of safety, more fare dodgers and more aggression. Both NS passengers and staff are the victims of this.’