Consumer organisations have called for a compensation fund to be set up to protect people left stranded when airlines go out of business. Travel trade organisations such as the ANWB, the Consumentenbond and the SGR compensation fund say the government should legislate to add 25 cents to the price of every ticket which would go into a collective insurance scheme. This year alone Thomas Cook, Iceland-based Wow Air and Air Berlin have gone bust, leaving thousands of passengers to organise... More >

Electric scooters are becoming more popular and now account for one in seven new purchases, according to figures by motoring organisations. So far this year 6,407 electric scooters have been sold. The proportion is highest in Amsterdam, where a quarter of new models are powered by electricity, partly prompted by the capital’s ban on older petrol scooters. The government set a target in the climate agreement signed this year of ending sales of new non-electric scooters by 2025. A year... More >

Dutch motorways are becoming more dangerous and deadlier, according to road safety organisation SWOV. The number of motorway deaths rose to 81 in 2018, the highest figure in more than a decade. The total number of accidents has more than doubled in five years, from 17,000 in 2014 to more than 38,000 in 2018. Motorways accounted for just under 12% of all deaths on the roads last year. SWOV said the main causes of collisions were speeding and drivers being... More >

At least 35 Dutch tourists in the South American country of Ecuador have been stuck for days because of road blocks put up by locals in protest against government cutbacks. The Dutch foreign office said it is in touch with two travel companies who together represent some 35 tourists from the Netherlands. ‘A number of individual travellers have also contacted the ministry saying they feared for their safety,’ a ministry spokesperson told broadcaster NOS. Travel organisation Sawadee said its 16... More >

A train with hundreds of people on board had to be evacuated after it collided with a crane on the main line near Breda. Nobody was injured in the collision, which happened just outside Prinsenbeek station on Monday morning, but all 250 passengers had to be transferred to another train to Rotterdam. All services between Lage Zwaluwe and Breda were suspended and no trains were running on the high-speed line to and from Rotterdam. The disruption was expected to last... More >

The overnight ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich was delayed for two hours on Sunday after three men were caught trying to cross the North Sea illegally. The three Moroccan nationals were found on board after border police received a tip-off about possible stowaways. Coastguard and harbour police boats were also used to search the waters around the ferry. Border police spokeswoman Marloes de Ridder said it was not clear how the men had managed to evade detection during... More >

KLM has cancelled 11 flights on Monday morning after airport ground staff at Schiphol staged a two-hour strike in a dispute over pay. The airline did not say which flights would be taken out of the schedule during the stoppage between 8am and 10am, but told passengers to check departure times before travelling. The FNV union called the strike after a deadline to reach a new pay agreement expired on Friday. The union’s demands include an 8% pay rise spread... More >