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THE HAGUE, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A large part of Amsterdam and its surroundings suffered from a power failure on Tuesday morning, causing massive delays in public transport.
It was dark on Tuesday morning, without the usual street and traffic lights, when power went down at around 4:15 a.m. in Amsterdam and in the neighboring cities of Zaandam and Landsmeer. Many people were left without lightning and heating for a few hours, as the power failure affected about 364,000 addresses.
At around 6:15 a.m., part of the affected households got their electricity back and around 9:30 a.m. the blackout was over.
The power failure was a result of a problem at an electricity distribution station in Amsterdam, but the exact cause of the blackout is not clear yet.
Rail traffic around Amsterdam and other public transport including trams, metro and buses, were also affected by the blackout.
And the train traffic stop in Amsterdam also affected the timetable of the rail traffic in the rest of the country. The national railways NS advised travelers to postpone their trips to Amsterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and Lelystad.
Public transport restored slowly after the power came back, with buses and metro lines ahead of trams and trains.
Despite a warning from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment about a heavy traffic morning rush, the power failure had little impact on the roads. Only some rush lanes on highways stayed closed, because the matrix signs above the roads were not functioning, causing extra traffic jams.
