Dutch railway company NS will temporarily suspend its services on Saturday night, after one of its conductors was severely attacked by a group of minors this past weekend.
The incident occurred last Saturday, April 13, on a double-decker train between Delft and Den Haag Hollands Spoor. A female conductor was kicked, beaten, and pushed down the stairs by a group of boys.
In protest against the increased violence against NS staff members, trains from the NS and Arriva will stop running for three minutes at 10:30 PM on Saturday, April 20.
“That’s the time my colleague was abused”, an NS spokesperson tells RTL Nieuws.
Increased aggression against NS staff
The affected NS employee was treated in the hospital and is now in a cast. She allegedly suffered a broken arm.
The group of six to eight boys also repeatedly hit an engineer when the train stopped, reported the NOS.
One minor has been arrested and remains in police custody.
“Enough is enough”
Unfortunately, this pattern of behaviour fits a worrying trend.
In 2023, the NS reported about 1,042 incidents of threats and assault against NS staff members, an 8% increase from 2022.
“We see that, since Corona, the aggression towards train staff has increased. People have a short fuse, not only on the train but in other places,” says the NS spokesperson.
“We have to take so many measures that sometimes we look more like a security company than a train company. The NS cannot solve this alone. Something has to be done.”
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Those boys should be in prison.