Public transport strike to halt trains, buses, trams tomorrow; Schiphol train will run

On Wednesday, September 9, public transport workers across the Netherlands will stage a 24-hour strike. Except for the sprinter service between Amsterdam Central Station, Schiphol, and Hoofddorp, no trains, buses, trams, or metros will run tomorrow. The Amsterdam ferries will also be out of service.

The strike is expected to cause extra traffic on the roads, especially given ongoing roadworks in many places. Rijkswaterstaat also closed the bridge on the A28 highway near Nijkerk indefinitely on Monday, causing extra traffic around Apeldoorn. Commuters are urged to work from home as much as possible.

Schiphol Airport will remain accessible to a limited extent during the strike, NS announced. As in previous railway strikes, the sprinter to the airport will run four times an hour on Wednesday. Schiphol secured this measure through a lawsuit during a 2024 strike. The airport argued that failure to provide public transport service to Schiphol would cause a gridlock around the airport, resulting in unsafe situations. The court agreed and obliged NS to keep the airport accessible by train.

Trade unions FNV and CNV announced the public transport strike in late July. The trade unions are protesting against government plans to cut the budget for social security benefits by €6.5 billion. The measures included accelerating the increase of the state pension age (AOW), shortening the unemployment benefit (WW) from 24 to 12 months, and scaling back the disability benefit (WIA).

The government scrapped or postponed the majority of these cuts, according to documents leaked from the national budget for next year. But the trade unions decided to go through with the strike.

An FNV spokesperson told Parool that public transport workers face “an above-average risk of ending up on disability benefits” due to the strenuous nature of their work, and they need to be able to trust “that help is available when things go wrong.”

NS hopes to resume its regular schedule on Thursday, September 10, but urged travelers to keep an eye on travel information. Rain manager ProRai expects some lingering disruptions early Thursday morning.