Because a lot of damage has been done to the track, no trains will run on Saturday morning, ProRail reports.
In many places in the country fallen trees are lying on the track or the overhead wires are damaged. ProRail started on Friday evening with inspection rides, which are rides without passengers to check whether there are any roadblocks or damage to the track. However, due to the persistent strong winds, this is not yet possible safely in the entire country.
Where the journeys have already been carried out, it has been found that there has been major damage to the track and to the overhead wires. Repair work is not yet possible due to the persistent high winds.
“Unfortunately, this means that we cannot start the timetable tomorrow morning. The safety of our employees is number one,” according to the rail manager. It is not yet clear when this will be possible.
On the road
Rijkswaterstaat expects to be busy clearing roads and salvaging stranded vehicles until Saturday, Rijkswaterstaat reports Friday evening. On many roads, trucks overturned on Friday and there are trees, branches or other objects on the road. Rijkswaterstaat expects to be working on this all night and probably also part of Saturday, also because in connection with safety, cleaning up can only be started when the storm has passed.
According to the ANWB, a chaotic situation had arisen on the Dutch roads at the end of the afternoon, mainly due to the large number of trucks that had overturned and roads that had to be closed as a result. This made it very difficult to devise detours. Rijkswaterstaat keeps track of which roads are closed in a live blog. Around 7.30 pm there were several, just like entrances and exits. In addition to overturned trucks, the causes were also things such as damage to the noise barrier, a scissor trailer and fallen trees.
We advise road users who nevertheless have to use the road to keep a close eye on the weather and traffic information and to adapt their driving behavior to the circumstances, Rijkswaterstaat reports.