The NS looks back on an excellent carnival. Compared to last year, more travelers were transported to the major cities in Brabant, with the weekend as the traditional peak.
About ten percent more travelers were welcomed at Tilburg station on Saturday. On Sunday it was twice as busy at Tilburg and Den Bosch stations as on other Sundays. In Breda, three times as many carnival revelers came to the city during the weekend. Most of them came from Rotterdam.
“Crazy on the train.”
During the carnival weekend, Breda received a huge stream of carnival revelers. It was three times as busy as on normal weekends. “It was especially busy in Breda on Saturday. Just like last year, most carnival revelers came to the south on that day. Most travelers came from Rotterdam. We had already taken this into account by using longer trains. Sometimes it was a crazy things on the train,” says NS spokesperson Arno Leblanc.
“We had a lot of trouble with the confetti cannons.”
In addition to the excellent figures for passenger transport, there was another sore point to note. Leblanc: “We received twice as many reports about waste on the train as last year. We deployed 250 cleaners. We also had a lot of problems with confetti cannons. There was no way to deal with that. Cleaners said that they could not keep up with the clearing of the confetti “There was even someone who had sprayed a fire extinguisher.”
Waiting for privacy settings…
The spokesperson would like it if travelers would also take their own waste with them. “On Mondays there are also people who have to go back to work. They sometimes end up in the mess. Our cleaners can keep everything clean.”
The NS also had to deal with a new phenomenon. “On some trains there were people walking around taking the empty cans for the deposit.”
“Next time we will place the pee crosses more strategically.”
The NS did receive some complaints about the pee crosses at stations. “That is generally the work of municipalities. Now they were so close to the station that people were urinating on walls. That is not the intention. In consultation with the municipalities, we want to place the urination crosses more strategically next year.”
The frikandel sandwiches were extremely popular at the shops at the station (Kiosk and AH/ToGo). At the major stations of Breda, Den Bosch, Eindhoven and Tilburg they could not be found at the Kiosk. According to Leblanc, three times as many were sold as on a normal working day. At the AH/ToGo, no fewer than four thousand frikandel sandwiches were sold during the carnival weekend. Cheese rolls and sausage rolls were also popular at all shops.