NS ran late in 2005

4 January 2006

AMSTERDAM — Dutch rail company NS missed the target set for it by the Ministry of Transport last year.

In response to an article in newspaper ‘De Volkskrant’ on Wednesday, network manager ProRail confirmed 84.8 percent of the commuter services operated by NS ran on time in 2004. The target was 86.5 percent.

NS had to cope with a number of difficulties last year, including “three serious derailments” at Amsterdam Central Station, a spokesperson for the rail company said. And a major computer glitch at ProRail disrupted train services in and around Utrecht for a day.

Further delays were caused by regular maintenance work carried out on tracks. This usually occurred at the weekends.

The NS spokesperson said the fear of terrorism also contributed to the high number of delays. Trains were halted on numerous occasions by “suspect packages”. All of these turned out to be false alarms or hoaxes.

Subject: Dutch news