Lisanne Wendling is back home, in Breda. But her trip to Rotterdam earlier in the day, including dinner with a friend, was a bit shorter than planned. The cause: a stopped train. “At the restaurant they thought a date had let my girlfriend down.”
The reality was different. Lisanne was one of 150 travelers who suddenly noticed around four o’clock on Saturday afternoon that their train, an IC Direct, came to a standstill. Nothing was wrong in advance, then all the more, says the 22-year-old from Breda.
“There could be something wrong with the overhead wires.”
“There was an announcement that there was a problem with the train and that more information would be forthcoming as soon as possible. There must be something wrong with the overhead wires. After a while I suddenly saw some ProRail cars drive by. Then bottles of water were also handed out by boys and a conductor.”
It might have been hotter in that train at that time than outside, where the temperature had already risen to tropical heights. Lisanne: “It was quite busy in the compartments. Apparently a lot of people wanted to go to Rotterdam. For example, there were also fans of Feyenoord that will play at home this evening.”
“The atmosphere was decent
“I was also still in the sun, it was very hot there, quite stuffy. Of course, the people were dressed lightly, but it is not pleasant when there is such a sweat. Still the atmosphere was reasonable chillpeople complained mainly in a light-hearted way.”
“So we were given water, but we were asked not to take water if you had enough water with you. Otherwise there would be too few.” She could live with that. “Worse was that I read what was going on on the app rather than through the announcer. There was still an attempt to get the train going, but after two minutes it stopped again.”
For some reason, there had been some sort of short circuit at the location at Zevenbergschen Hoek where the high-speed connection changes to regular rail. A familiar story for Lisanne. Various other people who approached Omroep Brabant also pointed out that the high-speed train between Rotterdam and Breda often goes wrong.
At around a quarter past five, when the train had already stopped for five quarters of an hour, a solution was found in the form of a replacement train. This allowed the passengers to continue the journey at ten to six. And so Lisanne was able to get off in Rotterdam two hours after she had actually planned it to join her friend. “They already thought a date had let her down.”
“Reimbursement doesn’t help.”
In the event of a certain delay, you as a victim are entitled to compensation from the Dutch Railways. Will the student who obtained her diploma at the Breda University of Applied Sciences last school year make use of this? Lisanne: “I checked it once. Because I travel on a so-called student travel product, that amounts to an amount of 4.60 euros. Don’t exactly put a stop to it.”
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