The morning rush hour started on Thursday morning due to multiple accidents caused by icy roads, the Rijkswaterstaat reported. Thousands of regional public transport and coach workers will also be on strike today and tomorrow.
Due to an accident involving a truck, two lanes on the A2 at the Ekkersweijer junction are closed. It caused a lot of delays around Eindhoven. On the A12 motorway, another accident led to the closure of two lanes at the Waterberg junction towards Utrecht. There was also an accident on the A27 motorway just before the Everdingen junction. Traffic can bypass the A15 and A2.
The ANWB also reported slow traffic in many parts of the southern part of the country due to winter showers. By 7.32am, the Travelers’ Association had reported 73 traffic jams covering 461 kilometers of Dutch roads.
Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow weather warning for the whole country on Thursday morning. Freezing makes roads slippery. Drive slowly and maintain a safe following distance, the weather advises. Snow is also falling in Gelderland, Noord-Brabant and Limburg. Local snowfall in the southern regions can reach 3 centimeters.
In addition to the bad weather, regional public transport workers are on strike across the country to demand a better collective bargaining agreement. Tour bus drivers also joined the strike. Several public transport companies, including Arriva, Qbuzz and Arriva, warned travelers they could not guarantee that timetables would run smoothly and advised them to seek alternative transport today.
“There are big regional differences, with 100% of buses, trams and trains running in some areas and only 40% in others,” a spokesman for the Public Transport Employers’ Association (VWOV) told NU.nl.
Negotiations between VWOV and the union stalled in the early hours of Wednesday. According to the employer, the union will not accept the proposed 8% “above average” raise. Negotiations have stalled on several fronts, including wage increases, workloads and the duration of the new agreement, according to the union. Some 13,000 workers belong to regional transport collective agreements.
The strike does not affect NS trains or urban public transport in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, as these employees are subject to separate collective labor agreements. Although Rotterdam’s RET did warn on Wednesday that some of its buses might not be able to run today.
