Give the Netherlands a serious disturbance and self-doubt will force itself. This week, train transport around Amsterdam unexpectedly collapsed, with consequences for many national and international connections. Hundreds of travelers could not get home and had to be improvised. The cause was a complex IT failure at manager ProRail, which could not be resolved in time.
The responsible NS and ProRail top appeared on TV, who together sadly found that their digital systems suddenly froze. Call the supplier! Call help, Reboot and Restart! Or has the system just been infected, hacked or incorrectly updated? Or perhaps completely outdated and the black screen announces the dreaded digital last breath. Many institutions and companies are aware of their digital arrears. Messrs. Koolmees (NS) and Voppen (ProRail) were present this week bee On 1 not very reassuring. This could happen again.
The usual observations were made in the post-mortem of the NS incident. A very intensively used but also cramped rail network that has become dependent on advanced computer systems. And a safety culture that allows no margin. If something actually goes wrong, the consequences are immediately serious, even if it concerns a purely preventive emergency stop. Apparently a secret digital fuse had blown somewhere here, which the experts could only trace days later. Too bad, let’s hope it doesn’t happen more often. What you say, neighbor. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, right?
But what does this say about the Netherlands in 2023? It was known that it is vulnerable to IT failures. However, for a country that advertises itself as a logistics hub and international business location, this is quite a setback. The relative carelessness with which those responsible largely closed the rail network was also the case. So there is no spare capacity, no plan B, no alternative. Although that was urgently recommended during the previous massive outage.
Has the densely populated Netherlands become too complicated? Is the rail network also such a system that has reached its limits? It looks like it. Essential infrastructure that has been maintained and expanded, but has not kept up with the times. Fact: some railway embankments were still built with Marshall aid. The Netherlands missed the trend of high-speed lines – they are there, but have to limit speed here for technical reasons. It’s ridiculous, as if only propeller-driven aircraft can land at Schiphol. Those who take such a TGV or ICE train only feel the progress when the train leaves the Netherlands and the speed suddenly increases.
Read also: Four challenges for Wouter Koolmees at NS
A country where the Eurostar, the direct train connection with London, has just been shut down for six months because Amsterdam CS has to be renovated. What can be called a disgrace: from now on change trains in Brussels for the train to London. The Netherlands has also been struggling for a decade with shortening the train journey between the Randstad and the north of the Netherlands – and even now the Lely line is still not a certainty. Imagination clearly has no power here. And the ambition to lead the way is lacking.
NS is struggling with a dramatic labor market, declining passenger numbers, overloaded staff and different travel behavior after the pandemic. In December, it was short of 580 conductors and 340 train drivers. A price increase for rush hour or on popular routes has been announced for 2025. This year the increase is an average of 4.3 percent. In the meantime, the timetable has been cut back, trains have been shortened and travel times have been extended. NS received a symbolic fine of 1.5 million euros for this this week, which the State Secretary promised not to collect. Politically pragmatic, but it also makes the government-NS relationship toothless.
In the meantime, the climate crisis and the energy transition require a drastic change in travel behavior and therefore also attractive public transport. Whether the consumer wants to leave the (gasoline) car and plane and take the train much more often. Autoland Germany offers its citizens a public transport monthly rate of 49 euros: unlimited travel on buses, trams, metros and regional trains. To get used to the idea and its use. The international sleeper train is being reinvented by the market, but mainly elsewhere. Although the new night train Antwerp, Rotterdam, The Hague to Berlin is a good example from our own soil. Seen in this way, the Netherlands only has an advantage in one area of transport: the bicycle. Still immune to IT failures, as long as they are not absorbed by the Internet. But the train must not be left behind, especially now.
A version of this article also appeared in the June 10, 2023 newspaper.