For the past three weeks, Schiphol and ProRail have been working on the tracks and platforms at Schiphol railway station, as part of Schiphol’s Major Maintenance and Multimodal Hub projects. As only one section of tunnel was open at any one time during this period, this resulted in fewer trains. Last weekend, a replacement bus service was running from a specially constructed temporary bus station on Koepelstraat. The next phase of the engineering work is due to start on Saturday, 9 December.
Significant progress has been made at Schiphol railway station over the past three weeks. “We have renewed tracks and also the structure on which the track lies,” says Johan van der Velden, construction manager of Schiphol’s Major Maintenance project. “We also worked on the overhead lines. Everything has gone smoothly.”
Major reconstruction work has also been done on the platforms. As Erwin de Boer, construction manager of Schiphol’s Multimodal Hub project explains, “Our contractor has been hard at work. In a short time, old ramps have been demolished and removed by train. In addition, we have been working on five access points concurrently over the past three weeks. We are opening new stairs and escalators, but also closing old ones in order to rebuild, so work will continue in the coming period. The logistics and the space available on the platforms remain a challenge; to continue working over the coming period, at least 400 tonnes of materials such as sand, steel, steps, concrete slabs and sand-lime brick have been transported by train.”
After a few days’ rest, the work will continue from Saturday. Johan fills in the details: “Next weekend, we will be working on several sections of track, which means no trains can run between Amsterdam and Schiphol Airport. A replacement bus service will operate instead.” Work will also take place between 14 and 19 December on the tracks, stairs and moving walkways at the station. This too will restrict train services to and from the airport.
While the engineering work is in progress, all trains to and from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol will be rescheduled. To avoid surprises, make sure you check out the latest information and plan your trip in advance.