A hassle free weekend. This is how NS board member Tjalling Smit describes the train transport around Zandvoort, where the Dutch GP was held on Sunday with Max Verstappen as the winner. According to Smit, no unpleasant things have happened and the NS staff experienced the race weekend as “good”.
Smit says that the NS has allowed the maximum number of trains with a maximum length to run between Amsterdam and the seaside resort. More than 120,000 race fans have been taken to Zandvoort and back home by train.
Until 10 p.m. Sunday evening, twelve trains per hour will continue to run at Zandvoort to transport fans home. After that it will be six per hour.
Bus
Train traffic between Amsterdam and Haarlem was halted for a short time on Saturday afternoon after a bus hit a railway viaduct. There were also temporarily fewer trains that evening due to a faulty overhead wire. But those were just “pin pricks” this weekend, says Smit.
The NS had deployed a few hundred extra people to bring all race fans to and from Zandvoort.
The extra effort at Zandvoort was at the expense of train traffic around the ArenA area in Amsterdam. No trains stopped there for several hours on Saturday due to capacity problems and because otherwise the NS could not guarantee the safety of passengers. Ajax played that day in the Johan Cruijff ArenA against SC Cambuur and there were sold-out concerts in the Ziggo Dome (Kensington) and AFAS Live (Yade Lauren).