There will be no trains running at all on Sunday evening. This was reported by NS. This is due to a major IT failure that largely shut down the railway network on Sunday. NS has been technically glitching since early afternoon and is taking longer than expected. “We’ll see Monday morning,” an NS spokeswoman said expecting the normal schedule could largely start again on Monday, but what exactly that would look like.
NS advises travelers to check their travel planner Monday before departure for current information. International trains are not affected by this disruption. “Although the cause of the malfunction has now been resolved, the impact is significant,” NS said in a statement.
“To be able to start operating reliably, systems must be updated and trains must be brought to the right place. That takes time,” according to the NS.
System has stopped working
The flaw affects the system that establishes current schedules for trains and staff. According to NS, this system is essential to travel safely and on time. If something goes wrong somewhere on the path, the system adapts to it. Due to the malfunction, this is no longer possible.
Current travel information is also disabled. The travel advice in the travel planner does not display any delays or canceled trains.
Earlier in the day, NS reported that the problems would be resolved at five, which was later adjusted to eight, and eventually came the message that no more trains were running.
Regional carriers
Trains operate on the routes of regional carriers. But current travel information cannot be given for this either. NS said the buses are not in use. Because the outage is national, and about such large numbers, it wouldn’t be appropriate. “That’s impossible,” a NS spokeswoman said.
Regional buses operated on Sunday, but Areva, for example, said it could not operate any additional buses, because all drivers had already been deployed. Those buses were packed all day and sometimes the stops had to be skipped.
comprehensive investigation
Tjalling Smit, a member of the NS board of directors, apologized to travelers Sunday evening. “We will comprehensively investigate the cause and how we can prevent this in the future.”
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