THE HAGUE, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Snowfall, slippery roads and a strike by public transport workers caused massive traffic jams in the Netherlands on Thursday.
Rijkswaterstaat, the department of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management responsible for road and infrastructure maintenance, said that at 7:50 a.m. local time on Thursday, there were almost 690-km-long traffic jam in the country.
During the COVID-19 period, the country's roads were less busy. The previous record of traffic jam stuffed up 572 km of Dutch roadways in the morning of Dec. 13, 2022.
Hit hardest on Thursday was the country's south. The provinces of North Brabant and Limburg, and especially the area around the city of Eindhoven, were blanketed by a thin layer of snow, causing a number of truck accidents.
Meanwhile, a strike by staff of regional public transport companies seeking pay increases on Thursday and Friday also made the morning busier than usual. ■
