Public transport workers throughout the Netherlands are on strike on Wednesday. No trains, buses, metros, trams, or ferries are running, except for the train from Amsterdam to Schiphol. Traffic services expect the morning rush hour on the road to be busier than usual, but not too extreme.

“The nationwide public transport strike might prompt more people to take the car, but we did not see a significant difference in peak-hour traffic during previous strikes, nor do we expect one now,” the Rijkswaterstaat said.

The ANWB warned that rush hour might be busier than usual due to the strike. At 7:00 a.m., the travelers’ association recorded 32 traffic jams covering 112 kilometers of Dutch roads.

Early in the morning, the major train stations in the big cities were more or less abandoned, indicating that travelers were well informed about the strike. Commuters were urged to work from home as much as possible.

Trade unions FNV and CNV organized the public transport strike in protest against the government’s plans to cut €6.5 billion from the social security budget. The plans included cuts to the state pension (AOW), unemployment benefits (WW), and disability benefits (WIA).

The government scrapped or postponed the majority of these cuts, according to documents leaked from the national budget for next year. But the trade unions decided to go through with the strike.

An FNV spokesperson told Parool that public transport workers face “an above-average risk of ending up on disability benefits” due to the strenuous nature of their work, and they need to be able to trust “that help is available when things go wrong.”