“Cancelled all day due to the failure of the trains,” said Lotte Boon. “Or does anyone happen to drive from Utrecht to Castricum?” Due to a technical malfunction, no trains will run until at least 5 p.m., NS reports. The advice is to postpone your train journey. Those who are already on the road should look for other travel options. That happens en masse on #liftwanted. Poet Ester Naomi Perquin is stranded on Gouda Goverwelle. “Together with two hundred people. Is there anyone who is going to Rotterdam? Reward in poetry, to make it extra attractive.”
Carmen and two friends made cardboard signs with ‘Utrecht’. They have to go from Enschede to the Domstad: that will be hitchhiking.
Rorythart also sounds the alarm: “If anyone happens to have to travel south from Amsterdam (near Leiden), let me know, I would like to take a ride, I really have to go home.” @Richard2263 is in danger of missing his flight. “And then you are at the station in front of Jan … I don’t think we are going to make it to Schiphol.”
Help is being offered massively on Twitter. Member of Parliament Caroline van der Plas: “I am driving from Deventer to The Hague this afternoon around 5 p.m. and I have three places in the car. Let me know if you want a lift,” she wrote on Twitter. Radio maker Astrid de Jong (De Nachtzuster) also offers herself: “I drive to Hilversum from camps at 2.15 am and back at 6.15 pm.” The train failure brings out the best in Maarten Hachmang. “On to the station to help some stranded travelers.”
Twitter is also just fine for jokes to put the discomfort into perspective. “Even with their April 1 jokes, NS has a serious delay,” Blikker reports. As an ‘ardent car driver’, Charly Jongejans had just bought an ‘NS Flex subscription’ yesterday. “Good intention, right? Where would we be without the train?” Charly is now requesting money back from NS.
KakkerJacques doesn’t see the fun in it. “You really should be ashamed.” Wellofgrief is also disappointed. “Go by train, they said. That’s nice, they said….” The outburst is quite sour for Wilma Waterlander, who is out with two children. “Day out by train. Stranded at Utrecht Central Station.”
The fact that it would not be possible to display current travel information at stations due to the malfunction is not a good idea for many travelers. @EelkeDouma: „Because you cannot show current information at stations, you no longer drive at all? This is very bad.” Hans Vos cannot reach it, but admits: „I am extremely spoiled in Japan, where train failures (due to snow, frost, storm, autumn leaves on the rails, various malfunctions, accidents with persons, cows on the rails) is a rarity.”
Hacked?
“The NS has been hacked?” Marco Mulders reports. Bo Macboone doesn’t trust the business either. “No trains in the whole of the Netherlands due to a malfunction? Could it be that the NS has been hacked?” Ernst Debets: “It’s crazy that the regional carriers seem to be running, but their information supply is also down. The question here is: is this due to the broken software at NS or are Putin’s friends going on and are they just shutting down the NS with hacks?”
No, Gerben thinks: “The NS doesn’t need the Russians at all to go down…. They can do that themselves.” Wout Schaap shows ‘understanding’ for the train failure. “It was rough last night too. Somewhere in the Netherlands it was -6 degrees! Or is it the Russians who are to blame? I’m holding my breath now that the CEO of the NS is moving to KLM.” And @mijvoorbeterov about the departed NS top woman Marjan Rintel: „Until 5 pm (at the earliest) no NS train in the Netherlands. Normally, after this umpteenth embarrassment, we would demand the CEO’s departure. But hey, she’s already leaving the sinking ship anyway. How are stranded travelers taken care of?”
nice encounters
Martje de Voogd looks at it from the positive side: “We made it through detours, bus, tram, metro and a huge delay when we arrived at our destination. Every disadvantage is an advantage: together you get further and nice encounters.” Gerrie de Vegt is also an optimist: “We are just lucky that there are problems at the NS, because that means we have my son with us a little longer.”