Impact of NS strikes on Eurostar services

[AdamWW]

Does anyone know what impact the current NS strikes are likely to have on Amsterdam/Rotterdam Eurostar services?

I've just seen that Eurostar are now advising against travel on the 29th (which I think is when the Amsterdam area is affected) but not on any of the other strike dates.

My geography of the Netherlands isn't very good but it looks as if the strike on the 31st might also include areas they pass through but maybe as it's NS and not Prorail striking what matters is where the drivers are based? Or is that not how it works?

 

[DanielB]

Haven't read anywhere what the effects on international trains will be, only that effects are expected. The 29th Amsterdam is on strike, the 26th Rotterdam is.
On the 31st Hoofddorp is on strike, but that staff base isn't involved in international services AFAIK.

It does matter indeed where staff is based, which is mostly Amsterdam for international trains but also Rotterdam for IC Brussels.
Keep in mind however that also the maintenance facilities are on strike, so when an Eurostar set is supposed to get a scheduled check at Amsterdam Watergraafsmeer between services it may not get it. And that might cause unavailable rolling stock and thus a cancelled train.

Today in the north only an hourly IC service was offered using staff from other bases. Everything else was truncated at earlier stops, so the effects can be significant.

 

[AdamWW]

Haven't read anywhere what the effects on international trains will be, only that effects are expected. The 29th Amsterdam is on strike, the 26th Rotterdam is.
On the 31st Hoofddorp is on strike, but that staff base isn't involved in international services AFAIK.

It does matter indeed where staff is based, which is mostly Amsterdam for international trains but also Rotterdam for IC Brussels.
Keep in mind however that also the maintenance facilities are on strike, so when an Eurostar set is supposed to get a scheduled check at Amsterdam Watergraafsmeer between services it may not get it. And that might cause unavailable rolling stock and thus a cancelled train.

Today in the north only an hourly IC service was offered using staff from other bases. Everything else was truncated at earlier stops, so the effects can be significant.

Thanks.

I think it might have been nice given that Eurostar have told people not to travel if they offered to refund tickets rather than just waive change fees. I suspect that there isn't likely to be much availability to change to the day before or after (and it's not clear if you'd have to pay the difference in ticket price if it was).

 

[sprunt]

I got the email from Eurostar too - I'm travelling out on Friday and home on Monday. The email says they'll give 48 hours notice if the return train is cancelled, so I'm umming and ahhing about whether to book a flight home instead now (already not cheap) or risk waiting for the cancellation to be confirmed and flight prices to go up even more. Can anyone suggest whether five days in advance flights are likely to be more or less at their maximum price already or whether they might still go up more?

I suspect that there isn't likely to be much availability to change to the day before or after

I went to see if I could change to Tuesday, and there doesn't seem to be any availability all week London-bound. Its annoying, I'm keen to still go as it's likely to be the only overseas trip I manage to do this year, and changing the travel dates for a couple of months later isn't really an option as I'm probably going to be moving away from London within a couple of months. Also, my hotel's non-refundable which which kind of makes me look silly now, but even if I lose that I'm still well ahead over the years on booking the non-refundable option.

Am I right in thinking that if my London to Amsterdam train is cancelled I'm entitled to a full refund for that part of the ticket?

 

[AdamWW]

Am I right in thinking that if my London to Amsterdam train is cancelled I'm entitled to a full refund for that part of the ticket?

I don't see how they can cancel a service without offering a refund or appropriate replacement.

But then I wouldn't have expected them to tell people that they shouldn't travel but they can't have their money back if they don't.

So far as I know this isn't how domestic UK operators behave. (But maybe more in line with airlines? I don't know).

 

[johncrossley]

Are they likely to run some kind of reduced service between Amsterdam and Roosendaal on strike days? So you can use the Eurostar ticket on normal trains to get to Brussels, changing at Roosendaal and Antwerpen, and then the next available Brussels to London Eurostar.

 

[AdamWW]

Are they likely to run some kind of reduced service between Amsterdam and Roosendaal on strike days? So you can use the Eurostar ticket on normal trains to get to Brussels, changing at Roosendaal and Antwerpen, and then the next available Brussels to London Eurostar.

Is ticket acceptance for that likely? Eurostar don't seem to be even suggesting that passengers with an Amsterdam ticket can use a Brussels train instead if they can make their own way there.

 

[johncrossley]

Is ticket acceptance for that likely? Eurostar don't seem to be even suggesting that passengers with an Amsterdam ticket can use a Brussels train instead if they can make their own way there.

If you get Thalys or ICE and miss the connection in Brussels, you can get your ticket endorsed to use the next train.

 

[DanielB]

Are they likely to run some kind of reduced service between Amsterdam and Roosendaal on strike days? So you can use the Eurostar ticket on normal trains to get to Brussels, changing at Roosendaal and Antwerpen, and then the next available Brussels to London Eurostar.

How it looked like today (the first day of regional strikes) is that NS rescheduled staff in order to limit the effects of the strike to the region actually on strike. As nowadays the drivers licensed for the high speed line are based at multiple staff bases, there definitely will be some trains so you'd be able to cross the border. Some trains also have Belgian staff.
The biggest risk for the Amsterdam - Brussels IC is that the rolling stock is based in Amsterdam Watergraafsmeer though.

And the question will remain how the reduced service will look like. Today there was an hourly IC to Leeuwarden and Groningen from Amersfoort, but some routes and stations were not served at all. It's very likely that will happen again when Amsterdam is on strike, so you might have to take a detour. There are various alternative options by bus as well when you manage to get to Leiden or Utrecht for example, but expect those to be busy.

 

[AdamWW]

The Eurostar web site is now saying that they expect to provide a normal service on strike days apart from the 29th, but warn passengers to plan ahead and allow for disruption to domestic services.

I still think that any transport organisation telling customers not to use a ticket they have bought should offer an immediate refund, no questions asked.

 

[ashkeba]

I've just seen that Eurostar are now advising against travel on the 29th (which I think is when the Amsterdam area is affected)

Only to NL. Services to France not affected.

 

[AdamWW]

Only to NL. Services to France not affected.

Or Brussels I presume.

But this thread is about the Amsterdam/Rotterdam services.

 

[ashkeba]

But this thread is about the Amsterdam/Rotterdam services.

OK but title and opening post did not made that clear. I checked there was no "do not travel" to France as a result. I do not know how much the trainsets interoperate between Dutch, French and Belgian services, whether delays arriving from NL might affect a FR departure from London.

 

[AdamWW]

OK but title and opening post did not made that clear. I checked there was no "do not travel" to France as a result. I do not know how much the trainsets interoperate between Dutch, French and Belgian services, whether delays arriving from NL might affect a FR departure from London.

My apologies if you were unnecessarily alarmed.

I'll give you the title perhaps being unclear, but my original post did start:
"Does anyone know what impact the current NS strikes are likely to have on Amsterdam/Rotterdam Eurostar services?"
I thought that was clear enough.

 

[DanielB]

Tomorrow Eurostar, Thalys and IC Brussels will not stop at Rotterdam Central due to the strike in region west.
The latter will also run irregularly, so trains may be cancelled.

Edit: an article in the media mentions that there will be no international trains running on the 29th of August. That will include Eurostar, Thalys, IC Brussels, IC Berlin and Nightjet which are all staffed by NS for the Dutch part of the route.

 

[MisterT]

Tomorrow Eurostar, Thalys and IC Brussels will not stop at Rotterdam Central due to the strike in region west.

I don't know where this is coming from, but according to NS, the Thalys and Eurostar will run according to the regular timetable and stop at Rotterdam.
IC Brussels will run and stop at Rotterdam Central as well, but as some train crew for the IC Brussels is based at Rotterdam, some trains will be cancelled. The other trains will run as scheduled:

Thalys en Eurostar rijden volgens de normale dienstregeling. IC Brussel rijdt minder vaak, maar met gebruikelijke stop op Rotterdam Centraal.

Or translated: Thalys and Eurostar are running according to the normal timetable. IC Brussels will run fewer times, but with the normal stop at Rotterdam Central.

 

[DanielB]

I don't know where this is coming from, but according to NS, the Thalys and Eurostar will run according to the regular timetable and stop at Rotterdam.

This was coming from the alert sent by the NS app just before I posted this. However, they've changed the information in the app as well since that moment: the sentence mentioning that the stop in Rotterdam is cancelled has been removed.

 

[sprunt]

Edit: an article in the media mentions that there will be no international trains running on the 29th of August. That will include Eurostar, Thalys, IC Brussels, IC Berlin and Nightjet which are all staffed by NS for the Dutch part of the route.

Thanks for that info, I've taken the plunge and booked a flight home on Monday. Now, how to get from central Amsterdam to Schipol when the train isn't running - I bet the aiport buses will be busy on Monday.

 

[DanielB]

Bus 397 is likely busy indeed, but the most obvious choice. You could try bus 341 from Amsterdam South station directly to the Airport or 300 from Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA as those stations are also on the metro network.

Or an option that's less obvious: 356 from Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA to Schiphol Noord and change there for any bus to the terminal.

Tomorrow, due to the strike in region "Midden" no NS trains will run in the entire country. Eurostar and Thalys do run, as will a shuttle service from Amsterdam to Schiphol.
This is due to essential NS staff on the head office and operational control centre rail, both in Utrecht, will also be on strike.

 

[sprunt]

Bus 397 is likely busy indeed, but the most obvious choice. You could try bus 341 from Amsterdam South station directly to the Airport or 300 from Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA as those stations are also on the metro network.

i ended up getting the 341 from Amstelveenweg - surprised to see that my 72-hour transport pass didn't cover that though.

 

[DanielB]

The Amsterdam Travel ticket and GVB 72-hour pass are only valid with GVB and the 341 is operated by Connexxion. That's probably the reason.
With an Amsterdam & Region Travel ticket the 341 would have been included, but paying the normal fare for that single trip will have been the cheaper option.