Along with LOCOV and ProRail, NS collects data about the nuisance from service disruptions caused by engineering work. This reflects the number of passengers experiencing hindrance, the extra journey time and the number of extra changeovers. This lets us compare the degree of hindrance during service disruptions. Compared to 2015, the number of minutes of delays due to service disruptions rose by 35% in 2016. This was because of long-term disruptions due to the renovation of the railway yard at Utrecht and OV-SAAL. As in 2015, 59% of our passengers gave a score of 7 out of 10 or higher for the service during planned work.
A large amount of engineering work is planned for 2017, particularly on busy routes in the Randstad conurbation, leading to disruptions for our passengers. ProRail must of course maintain the infrastructure and prepare the track for future demands. NS is talking to ProRail about better and more innovative ways of working on the track that can reduce the net disruption for our passengers. It might be possible for instance to consider more work at night by splitting up large operations or smartly clustering large operations.