winter

After a week of snow in the Netherlands, the train schedules have been heavily affected, even as the weather improves, NS still expects delays in getting their rolling stock operational. They shared some numbers that might be interesting, approximately 400 trains need maintenance each week out of their entire fleet, and at this time, they have a backlog of 700 trains. Each train goes for maintenance once every three months.

During the winter timetable, a portion of the switches are taken out of operation as a precaution. Out of 4900 switches used in regular operation, 2500 were available for use. Others are locked in place to accommodate train routes set during the winter timetable, which makes the maintenance location unreachable.

ProRail and NS also have the option to use the extreme winter timetable, which takes out 92% of switches, leaving trains operational on only a few routes. This didn't seem to be used last week despite the heavy snow.

Rijkswaterstaat, part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, plots gritters on a map along with data on total salt sprinkled and kilometers driven on the day and within the whole winter season. The map also shows the road surface temperature measured by 330 measuring points throughout the country. I originally discovered this site from their post on Mastodon.