Update January 2008

AM54's in Italy

Two Belgian Type AM54 2 car EMU's have gone into service on the Modena - Sassuolo line for ATCM of Modena Italy. These units were delivered in 2005 but have not hitherto been used.

SNCB Class 11 for withdrawal?

There are concerns for the 12 dual voltage Class 11 electric locos currently working the Amsterdam - Brussells services and which are becoming increasingly unreliable. Because of this one pair of afternoon trains has been permanently cancelled and failures are affectuing the rest of the service whcih in any event should have been replaced by services over the new Hi Speed HSL. Pending delivery of thee new trains TRAXX Class 186 locos were supposed to have taken over but with continuing delays to the line this has not happened. Severla locos have been delivered to both Antwerp and Amsterdam but have yet to work trains in servce. Because of thee unrelaibility of the Class 11 locos, it is beleived that withdrawal is beuing considered oncve they have been replaced.

SNCB Orders new Stock

A €211m contract has been signed with Siemens for the delivery of 60 multisystem ES60 U3 locomotives based on the Austrian OBB 1216 class with delivery expected in 2009. SNCB is also reciving deliveries of new M6 style driving trailers - 30 are on order. Until these are in service many trains are having to be topped and tailed to maintain tight turnrounds.

Update December 2007

Railion Class 189

The freight company Railion plans to commence cross border operations between the Netherlands and Germany soon using Siements built Class 189 multi-voltage locomotives. certification of the ES64 F$ machines for operation on NS is expected before this can start.

26 locomotives will be available for services in and out of the Netherlands with most of the operations expected to be over the Betuweroute between the German border and Kijfhoek yard. The 25Kv was expected to be enregised by November. Currently Railion cannot operate on the Betuweroute as it has no locomotives fitted wtih ETCS level 2. The calss 189 will use the conventional 1.5kv when on the rest of the NS network. The class is also fitted with STM-ATB, the NS train protection system.

The introduction of class 189 will enable Railion to commence fitting ETCS Level 2 to its class 6400 locomotives

More DB Coaches for NS

In a bid to cope with rising numbers of passengers, NS is to increase its fleet of leased DB coaches to 106 rom 50. All caoches are expected to be in service by the end of 2007. The stock concerned is the former 200km/h InterRegio material with 80 type BIM vehicles, 12 type Bimd and 14 type Aim. NS are relivering the coaches to the NS blue/yellow which gives and indication that this is not simply a short term hire. In addition some dorr modifications are to be carried out on the Bimd to provide easier access for wheelchairs. A Dutch closing and locking system is to be installed and the carpets replaced by rubber mats. Other modifications involve removal of the axle generators and repalcemet by a static transformer.

The coaches are already in use on the Amsterdam Centraal to Deventer route and will also be introduced on the Den Haag to Arnhem services as deilveries increase.

HSL - Zuid - yet more delays

Domestic services on HSL Zuid which were due to be introduced on 9th December 2007 have been postponed again. At the time this news was announced a firm date had not been provided. This further delay seems to be as a result of problems in certification of the ETCS, approval and certification of the Bombardier TRAXX multi-voltage class 186 locomotives and the dust problem in the Groen Hart tunnel. Indications have been given to HSA, the consortium operting the high sped services between the Netherlands and other parts of Europe, that the anticipated October 2008 start date may also be at risk. A 26 week test period has to be completed before services can strat which means that full certification and sign off for the route and stock must be complted by 1st April 2008 which is looking unlikely. As a result compensation will be payable to HSA from the Dutch Government, a sum of €37m is to be paid representing the period 1st April 2007 to 1st October 2008.

New Names for Stadler Railcars

The Stadler class 200 diesel railcars used by Arriva on regional lines have been given the name 'Spurt'

Update November 2007

Update October 2007

Locomotive 1838 has been scrapped in August 2007. In was involved in an accident at
Amsterdam CS on May 21st 2004 and was damaged beyond repair.

On October 9th 2007 the first of the Electric Class 189 locomotives for Railion in The Netherlands was introduced to the public during the VRACHT84NL exhibition at the Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht. The locos are intended for service on the freight dedicated Betuweline and are able to work under four different voltages enabling them to work in 26 European countries. Of the 90 Class 189s owned by Railion 26 will become available for service on the Betuweline in the months of November and December.
Until now there have been many teething problems since the line was opened in June 2007 and it wouldn’t be a big surprise if the introduction of the first electric locos on the line would come with its own set of problems.

The opening of the High Speed Line between Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Breda and Antwerp has once again been postponed, this time at least until October 2008. The Minister of Transportation refused permission to begin services because the line doesn’t have a safety certificate yet and because the locos hadn’t the right version of a safety-system installed. HSA (High Speed Alliance), the company that will be operating on the line, has been given a compensation of  € 37.500.000 for the loss of income due to the delay of the opening of the line, a.k.a. HSL-zuid.

The first of 35 new sprinter EMUs built by Siemens and Bombardier in Krefeld (G) rolled out of the factory in September. The order for these units, 18 4-car units and 17 6-car units was placed in 2005. Originally the units were meant as replacements for the ageing Plan V and Plan T units but now they are presented as extra capacity because passenger numbers are  growing each year. In the last two and a half year the number of passengers rose by 12%. The new units will have a livery similar to the existing sprinters, white, yellow and blue. They will get air-conditioning and lots of doors so passengers can get in and out quickly. The height of the floors will be the same as the height of the platforms for easy access. On the same day that the first unit rolled out of the factory NS converted an option of 64 more units into a firm order costing  € 399.000.000 . This batch will exist of  32 4-car and 32 6-car units. Because the need for the new trains is so great NS has negotiated a speedy delivery of the new trains. They should all be in service by the end of 2011.  With the delivery of the first unit a period of training, testing and trials and certifications will begin which will at least last one year. What will happen with the Plan V and Plan T units is unclear. My guess is that they will still be needed to deal with the expected growth of the numbers of passengers. Another possibility is that some of them will be leased to other operators as more lines will be opened for bidding.   

Recently there have been trials with so-called  “long heavy lorries’ in The Netherlands and Germany. These are lorries with a maximum weight of 60 tons and a maximum length of 25.5 meters. One of the advantage of these lorries is that they can move more freight  than ordinary lorries at little extra cost. Two long heavy lorries can replace three traditional lorries which would help ease congestion problems on the roads and help solve environmental problems.  Despite all this the German government has decided not to allow these new lorries on its roads and put all its cards on freight trains instead. In the Netherlands the lorries will be restricted to carry only 50 tons. They will also be confined to a limited number of roads .

Update September 2007

Undercover inspectors on trains

Antwerp-Amsterdam Thalys in 2009

12 September 2007

BRUSSELS

The first full fledged Thalys high speed train to connect Paris with Amsterdam via Antwerp will most likely not be running until
2009. The rail company NMBS has said this in response to renewed infrastructure problems in the Netherlands.

The Dutch railways (NS) has submitted a claim to the government for damages reaching into the tens of millions of euro because the government seems unable to construct the high speed rails on time.

The high speed train between Paris and Amsterdam should have been in service for a year already, according to the original plans. But one problem after another has delayed the introduction. An official Dutch source says that the plan is to have the high speed line ready by 1 October 2008, but that no one really believes that deadline will be met.

[Copyright Expatica News 2007]

NS hires in extra intercity trains

14 September 2007

UTRECHT

The Dutch Railways NS has once again ordered in new equipment to accommodate the growth in the number of travellers in the Netherlands. 104 intercity carriages have been ordered for rental from rail companies abroad.

Ten carriages have also been taken over from NS International. Sixty extra carriages were put on the tracks this month; by the end of the year they should all be in use, primarily on the routes Deventer-Amersfoort-Amsterdam and Arnhem-Utrecht-The Hague.

The extra carriages will increase the number of seats available on the NS trains to 256,000 by the end of this year. NS trains had a total of 240,000 seats in December last year.The extra capacity is sorely needed. The number of train passengers has been rising steadily since 2005. The NS transports more than 1.1 million passengers each day and all reserves are being drawn on in an effort to reduce the number of overloaded trains. The railway company has been working the past few years to replace
carriages. At the moment NS has some EUR 700 million outstanding for
new intercity and local trains.

The cabinet wants public transport to grow by 5 percent annually. The Dutch Railways play an important role in this ambition.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Update August 2007

Problems with the Betuwelijn.

Since the opening of the Betuwelijn on June 16th until the 1st of August only about 25 commercial trains have used the new freight line. This was due to problems with the “European Train Control System”. Locomotives didn’t communicate well enough with the tracks which resulted in trips lasting 3,5 hours longer as planned.  On top of that maintenance work on the German side of the line caused capacity problems.  Halfway into July com-mercial services were halted altogether after which only testtrains ran. In August commercial services were resumed albeit at a trickle.
Photographers interested in the Betuwelijn may try the viaduct just outside sliedrecht station which is about 10 to 15 minutes away by train from Dordrecht station.  I recommend you go on a cloudy day as your camera will be facing south against the light. Photographers must bear in mind that there are soundbarriers along long stretches of the Betuwelijn  making photography difficult.
.

New footbridge at Rotterdam CS

A new footbridge running across all the tracks at Rotterdam station opened in July. It offers new possibilities for photographers if they happen to be at the right place at the right time. Let’s just hope nobody will fall off or be pushed off from the new passage.  Such incidents will certainly trigger new safety measures such as higher fences.

July 2007

AMSTERDAM (AP) - Seventeenth-century masons built Amsterdam on a foundation of wooden poles planted in soggy, sandy ground, leaving behind a beautiful architectural museum - but one with walls prone to sinking or crumbling without warning. So how do you dig an underground under it?

Very carefully.

Construction of a new ?North-South? line for this city of canals and rivers began in 2003, and is presenting Dutch engineers, famed for their ingenuity in keeping this waterlogged nation dry, with devilish challenges.

''The politicians told us: "We want a subway, we're prepared to pay for it and accept some disruption, but the one thing we absolutely don't want is any damage to the city," said Johan Bosch, the project manager. "We need a system so that if things don't go as expected, we don't find out after the damage is irreparable"

The solution: 7,000 mirrors hung in clusters of three on buildings along the 3.8 kilometres of the route that?s underground. Measuring devices shine infrared beams onto each mirror once an hour, measure the reflection, and feed data into a central computer.After triangulating, the computer raises the alarm if any building shifts more than 0.5 millimetres in any direction. A millimetre is the thickness of a paper clip.The system, unique on such a large scale, has already told townspeople something they may have guessed but couldn?t know for sure: that theirs is a city in motion.We now know that whole segments of the city move by themselves, a number of millimetres over the course of a season,? Bosch said.

Scheduled for completion in 2013, the EUR1.8 billion project stretches 9.5 kilometres in all and will transport an estimated 200,000 people daily, adding a new dimension to Amsterdam's traffic of bicycles, trams, cars, taxis, buses and boats.The biggest technical challenge is building a subway stop directly beneath the city?s main train station - a landmark 19th century building - while it remains in use.

A quarter of a million travellers pass through Centraal Station every day and few of them realise construction is happening beneath their feet."It's probably better that people don't see this" said Bert van de Zande of Strukton, the contractor responsible for this part of the project, pointing to I-beams supporting the building?s main columns.

Strukton workers eventually will dig an 18-metre-deep trench under the station, and connect it to the IJ river which flows directly behind.It'll be the world's most expensive covered canal,? Van de Zande said. When all is ready, a segment of concrete tunnel 136 metres long will be buoyed with air like a submarine, floated into the trench, and then allowed to settle gently into place.

And they expect that to work? We haven't missed a deadline yet, Van de Zande says.

This autumn, two drills, each 7 metres in diameter, will begin tunnelling through the city like huge metallic moles pulling the contraption that lays concrete tunnel walls.

Archeologists can't wait for the tunnelling to begin at the Damrak, which was once the harbour where the Amstel River met the IJ, leading out to the North Sea. In the 1600s, countless ships returning from the East Indies docked there, making Amsterdam - the dam on the Amstel - one of the world?s wealthiest cities.

The initial segment where the drills will descend into the earth is being built using the caisson method. The sealed segment, or caisson, is constructed above the spot where it must go. Workers operate in a pressurised air pocket directly beneath it, using hoses and pumping mud upward through a pipe so that the caisson slowly sinks.Because the streets of Amsterdam are below sea level at high tide, the air pocket is increasingly pressurised as the caisson descends to a final depth of 25 metres. Workers must rest in decompression chambers after their shifts in order to avoid getting ?caisson disease?, the divers? ailment otherwise known as the bends.The underground stations are being built before the tunnelling starts, using an innovative method intended to minimise disruption to street traffic: the walls are built first, then the roof, and the rest of the work can proceed underground.

There are always surprises.

Workers digging space for a wall at the Rokin station were alerted by the mirror monitoring system that buildings on a nearby street began to sway back and forth. On further inspection, they found they had run into a layer of horizontal poles at a level where they expected to find sand.Eventually, Bosch said, workers got through the layer using 11-metre steel tubes with drill bits welded to the end, chewing up the wood and sucking it out as if through a straw.It didn?t seem prudent to keep on going, so we had to find another way,? Bosch said. ?I?m sure it won?t be the last time we have to improvise.?

[Copyright AP 2007]

Introduction ICB coaches

Because of a shortage of rolling stock NS has hired about 30 Interregio coaches from the German DB. These coaches have either a blue and white livery or one of two varieties of
white and red. The coaches are very similar to the ICK coaches which were taken over from the DB a couple of years ago but differ in having another interior plus a number of one piece windows whereas the ICK coaches only have two piece windows. Some coaches have been painted in NS yellow and blue and it is expected that more will follow. The coaches are designated as ICB, which stands for InterCity Bruikleen which can be translated as InterCity Borrowed.
The class of ICB coaches consists of the following types, Aimz 261, Bimz 264, and Bimdz 268. At least 3 sets of these coaches can be seen working between Amsterdam CS and Amersfoort between 2 Class 1700/1800 locos during working days. Some services are
extended to Deventer in the east of the country. In addition to the “German” coaches there’s
another type of coach in these sets, NS type Avmz of which there are 10. These are 1st class coaches and owned by NS which come from an international pool of coaches used in loco-hauled EuroCity trains before the introduction of the ICE highspeed EMUs.  The coaches have been refurbished and have been given the yellow and blue NS livery. As more and more coaches are getting the NS livery the sets are gradually becoming less varied in colour since they began to appear around december 2006.     

Now that  almost all 3-car sprinter EMUs have been refurbished NS has decided to also refurbish the 30 2-car sprinter EMUs, a.k.a. CityPendels. The first unit has already gone to Randers in Denmark where the work is carried out and it is expected to enter service again in March 2008.

After refurbishment the 3-car DMUs 193 and 125 left The Netherlands in May to join a railroad company in Slovakia and 4 others are expected to join them later. The units didn’t make the journey to Slovakia under their own power but were towed.

The French company SNCF FRET Benelux has begun freight operations in The Netherlands in May. For this purpose 2 Vossloh G2000s have been rented, 5001615 and 5001616.

HSL-South

It is expected that the HSL-Zuid, The High Speed Line from Amsterdam to Paris will open in December and until the delivery of Hispeed EMUs loco-hauled coaches will be used. These will be ICR-coaches which have been given a new livery of different variaties of white red and pink with a black or grey band along the windows. This spring these coaches began to appear in the Benelux-sets which have NMBS Class 11.8 haulage making them very colourful  together with the traditional maroon/yellow and blue/yellow ICR coaches. It is expected that about 70 coaches will get the new livery. The DVTs however won’t get the new livery.
The delivery of  Hispeed EMUs, which have been ordered in Italy, has been postponed several times now and is now expected to be in 2009 at the earliest.

NS has decided to refurbish all 87 ICM-3 and 50 ICM-4 EMUs. They will receive a complete
new interior. The oranje seats have been replaced by red ones in the first class and in te second class by blue ones. Air conditioning plus  wireless internet is available in the whole train and in the first class there are sockets for laptops. In each compartment there are screens for passenger information or entertainment. Two of the three toilets and the kitchen department have been removed which has resulted in 27 extra seats, lower cleaning costs and probably some more cueing.
The most noticeable exterior changes are the replacement of the 2-piece windows by single piece ones, the replacement of the doors under the cab by a polyester plate and the extension
of the blue band along the windows which now ends in a semi-circle plus the relocation of the number to the sides of the front. At first all ICM-3 units will be refurbished, an operation that is expected to last until 2010.
After that the ICM-4 units will follow. In April the refurbished units 4011 and 4012 entered service again.

Update June 2007

First commercial train ran on the Betuweroute

First freight train uses Betuwelijn railway

Monday 18 June 2007

An empty goods train became the first to use the long-awaited freight-only Betuwelijn railway on Monday morning.

The train left the Zwijndrecht freight depot one hour later than planned because of technical problems, ANP reported. The train is heading to Hungary to pick up a consignment of grain.

Queen Beatrix officially opened the 160 km railway, which runs from Rotterdam to the border close to Germany's Ruhr industrial area on Saturday.

Monday's train had a police helicopter escort and travelled at less than 40km per hour as a security precaution. The track had been occupied at the weekend by GroenFront activists.

By the end of this year, 50 trains a week will be using the route, rising to 150 a day in five years, says management company Keyrail. The Betuwelijn railway has cost at least €4.6bn to build

Betuwe Route Opening Marred by Protesters

Protesters at Vastgetketend -Photo by Mr RW Beech

The Betuwe Route was opened by Queen Beatrix on 16th June. To mark the events a train composed of locos of all the operation companies, head to tail, led a train composed of all the different types of wagons expected to use the line, departed the Kijfhoek yard as planned on the signal given by HM Queen Beatrix. There were some spectators on the road over bridge, but the train did not proceed much further due to the several blockades mounted by protesters.
Sited at Oud-Alblas (near Dordrecht), Gorinchem, Meteren (near Geldermalsen) and Elst, a few protesters managed to set up barriers across the line after gaining access to the line through the walls and barriers designed to offer security and prevent noise pollution.
After the protesters had been allowed to make their demonstrations, they were removed by the local police without the intervention of the Railway Police or the Marechausee. Whether the operating companies are impressed with the lack of determined action or security remains to be seen.
However the ceremony at Barendrecht seemed to be trouble free, and the 200 specially invited guests were entertained to a spectacular theatre performance by singers and dancers depicting the construction of the new line.
Needless to say, the TV programmes also highlighted the lack of development planning and incompetent project management, the colossal cost over-runs and the dreadful effects on the environment, balanced against the easing of the traffic congestion on the A.15.
Ministers were at pains to explain away the obvious objections by suggesting that the line had better been built today rather than in the future when the environmental crisis would have been harder to overcome, or conceding that no effort has been made to improve the line between Zevenaar and Emmerich, or beyond to Oberhausen by DB.
I hope that the ex-Ministers, who were present at the ceremony and were responsible for the series incompetent and calamitous decisions at the outset of the project, felt some discomfort, or perhaps they were safe in the knowledge that their highly-paid political posteriors were suitably protected by the vagaries of the Dutch political electoral
system of coalition and collective lack of responsibility.

Further more and more important is the problem caused by the wall and safety regulations,

Modern freight wagons carry codes and warnings for the emergency services so that they are aware of any toxic chemicals on board, and they know what fire retardant material to use, e.g. water, foam or just let it burn!!!! The tunnel in Zevenaar has a permanently manned emergency room to control the ventilation and water sprinklers as well as the sumps and drains to collect any contaminants from an accident.

What is worrying the unions is that the train is not visible along its length because of the wall, and so any emergency services that arrive on the scene will have difficulty in deciding what to do.

AMSTERDAM – Train travellers are facing delays and cancelled trains throughout the country on Friday. Those travelling between Amsterdam and Utrecht should expect delays of 30 to 60 minutes, ProRail reports.

Fewer trains are servicing this route because of problems on the tracks.A faulty overhead cable is causing delays of 30 to 45 minutes between Leiden and Hoofddorp, ProRail warns.Until 5 pm fewer trains will be running between Amsterdam and Leiden and no stop trains will be operating between Hoofddorp and Leiden. Those travelling between Hoofddorp and Leiden should travel via Schiphol.

There are also problems on the tracks between Roermond and Nijmegen. Transport company Veolia is struggling with technical problems on this route, partly because diesel has become overheated.Problems on this route should largely be solved before the evening rush hour, says a spokesperson for Veolia.

Those travelling from Duivendrecht to Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA and from Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA to Abcoude should expect delays of up to 30 minutes because of a faulty switch.Equipment shortages will lead to 15 to 30-minute delays between Nijmegen and Boxmeer throughout the afternoon and evening, ProRail says.

Train service to and from Groningen was stopped on Friday morning because of a problem with the signal and switch system. Lightening strikes caused delays on the tracks between Breda and Dordrecht during most of the morning. These problems have since been solved, ProRail assures travellers.

[Copyright Expatica News 2007]

Update May 2007

New Railion Logo

New style logo now appearing on Railion stock. Taken at Zevenaar on 1st June 2007 - photo by Mr R W Beech

Proposed withdrawal of Benelux Trains Opposed.

ROVER, the Dutch lobby group has filed a complaint against NS with the regulator NMa as a result of NS plans to withdraw the current jointly operated Benelux push pull trains once the HSL Zuid is open. The accustation is that NS is using a dominent monoploy position to force people on to the more expensive High Speed trains. The present proposls would leave only a stopping train between Antwerp and Roodsendaal. It is hoped that the new transport minister will be more inclindd to intervene than his predecessor.

Randstadrail trials start again

IVW, the railway saftey authority gave permission to start trials of the Randstadrail netwrok between DenHaag Centraal and Nootdorp and on the Zoetermeer loop line using a RET Metro set which began on 15th March. The trails are particularly examining how the sets perform on points since it was a points derailment in November 2007 that caused susoension of service after 17 people were injured. Further trails took place from 20th March between Den Haag Laan van Nieuw Oost Indie and Zoetermeer West using a HTM Regio Citadis tram. A full trail of the proposed timetable without passengers will then be consucted. The full fleet of Citadis trams is almost complete.

Train travellers want conversation

25 May 2007

UTRECHT - Three-quarters of all train travellers in the Netherlands are curious about the person sitting next to them on the train. More than 60 percent even say they would like to strike up a conversation sometime but find it awkward to do so.Research bureau Motivaction found this in a random survey of more than 500 people. This study into contact among train travellers was commissioned by Douwe Egberts.

According to the study, people are most curious about "their fellow passenger's destination," followed by "where they come from and whether he or she has a partner," the researchers said.Men in particular want to know whether their fellow traveller is single. Almost 90 percent of people say that they find it awkward to start a conversation with a stranger on the train. But exceptional circumstances, like a delay, can make it easier.

Douwe Egberts wants to get people talking on the train and will therefore be setting up "conversation carousels" at three stations in the Netherlands in the coming week. The rotating carousel means people will be faced with a new conversation partner every three minutes.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Belgian Coach Refurbishment

Bonbardier has picked up a Euro50m contract from SNCB for the refurbsihment of 130 Type M5 double deck coaches including a heavy overhall of the running gear. This is the first refurrbishment contract won by the firm which includes updated seats, windows, cab air-conditioning, gangways and automatic doors and a new design of luggage compartment. The contract runs from October 2008 until 2011 and will take place at the firm's Cuesmes workshops. Bombardier is no stgranger to the M5 coaches having built them for SNCB in the late 1980's. The contract calls for the first two vehicles to be refurbished by the company with the next four undertaken jointly between Bombardier and SNCB to allow for skill transfer. The remaining 124 coaches will then be done by SNCB with Bombardier supplying all parts on a just in time basis.

Opening of Antwerp Low Level

The new North South line through Antwerp Low level stgation was opened on 23rd March by Infrabel the Belgian infrastructure owner. The new line is 3.8km long and links Antwerp Berchem with Antwerp Luchtbal and p[rovides for through running for trains from the Netherlands into Belgium. Previously all trains had to reverse at what is now the upper level (which is a terminus) or avaoid the station altogether. The link was started in 1998 and on completion has provided three levels with a total of 14 platforms. The low level platforms will form part of the High Speed Link from Brussels to Amsterdam.

14-year-old set train fire

16 May 2007

DELFT- A 14-year-old boy has confessed to setting a train on fire earlier this month.

Two carriages went up in flames. The train engineer had to be taken to hospital for respiratory problems but no passengers were injured. The NS estimates the damage at about EUR 800,000.

The NS is demanding damage compensation of about EUR 50,000. "These people put the lives of our passengers in danger and we just won't take that," said a spokesperson for the Dutch railways.

[Copyright Expatica News 2007]

Amsterdam Launches City Cargo Tram

A new project to use the tram system for the delivery of goods into the city centre gor underway on 7th March with a pilot that lasted until April 3rd. Two modified GVB trams were used running between 07.00 and 17.00, being loaded at Osdorp, the end of line 1 and unloaded in the City Centre at Frederiksplein and Plantage Parklaan into snall electric lorries that delivered thge small wheeled containers direct to the shops. A strict requirement imposed by the City Council was that the trams must not interfere with the normal tram operation.

Dependent on how the tests are judged, an expanded programme would require 50 specially built trams that would provide easier loading adn unloading. There would be four teransfer stations and many more distribution points with the aim of cutting the number of lorry movements in the city in half.

Betuwe Route Opens 16th June

The picture below shows a Vossloh (D) G 2000 from Rail4Chem on the new Betuwe route with what is either and engineering train or trial service. It is reported that due to the wall that protects wirtually the whole line, photography will be difficult apart from the various overbridges that cross the line. This was taken through an access gate that had been broken by vandals.

In the initial stages the line will be operated by diesel tracation since although the line is electrified, the voltage is 25kv and none of the various freight operators have any dual voltage traction at this time. It appears that due to delays - the line was supposed to open in March 2003, operators have delayed ordering traction that might otherwise have to sit around idle.

The opening ceremony takes place at Barendrecht NS Station, when the Queen will give the starting signal for the first freight train to leave the yard nearby. The Queen will also attend the public celebrations on the roof of the tunnel, which is actually a large open space, which may eventually include a bus-station, car-park and cycle-park. Due to concerns of increased noise levels from the new rail route, the line was enclosed in a cut-and-fill tunnel, approx 1½ kms long , and the official opening of this station and park coincides with the opening of the Betuweroute freight line..
The new Station is situated at the end of the deep tunnel where the line rises to ground level, but remains enclosed by glass and concrete walls and has separate lines for freight and passenger traffic.

Barendrecht, lies just to the south of Rotterdam and is close to the important rail junction into Rotterdam Botlek and Europort, and the main north-south line through Kijfhoek Yards, Dordrecht and to Breda and Roosendaal. The Beruweroute is 160 kilometres long, is intended for the exclusive transport of freight from Rotterdam harbour via Zevenaar, and on into the German heartland.

The line has been built by the project organiasation “Betuweroute”, a part of “Pro-Rail”, on the order of the Ministry of Traffic and Public Works, and will shorten the journey time to the German border, and on to Emmerich (D) and Oberhausen (D) . It will allow uninterrupted freight traffic on a route that closely follows the A 15 with no ground level road / rail crossings.

Photo by Mr R W Beech

4 arrests for train fire in Delft

3 May 2007

DELFT - A fire broke out on a passenger train at the Delft-Zuid station last night. The train had just pulled in from Delft's main station.

All the passengers were safely evacuated. The train engineer was taken to hospital for smoke inhalation. Police have arrested four people for arson, a spokesperson for the railway police announced.

The fire destroyed the front two carriages of the train, which had been on its way from The Hague to Dordrecht. The fire broke out just before 10 pm and was extinguished by fire fighters by 10.30 pm. Train service on the route gradually resumed at about midnight.

The police arrested four young men at Delft's main station after taking statements from witnesses. The four 17 and 18-year-olds all live in Delft.

A spokesperson for the Netherlands Railways (NS) said that it could demand compensation from the arsonists. "If these people are responsible for the fire, they have to pay the financial costs. The court has ruled in favour of this in the past."

The total fire and smoke damage from the incident last night comes to about EUR 700,000.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Update April 2007

Train service resumes

18 April 2007

AMSTERDAM - There were no trains between Amsterdam and Alkmaar this morning after a maintenance engine went off the rails late last night, rail infrastructure manager ProRail reported. The tracks were opened for service once again at 7.45 this morning and limited service was resumed.

NS warns travellers to expect delays of about 30 minutes for the time being.

An engine of rail contractor VolkerRail derailed last night during work near Uitgeest. No one was injured in the incident but the tracks were damaged.The engine was back on the rails in the course of the morning and the damage caused to a switch was repaired.

Buses were operating to transport travellers from stations along the route for several hours this morning.

'New' NS Carriages!

NS Hispeed. Operations on the new high speed line are scheduled to begin
at the end of this year (2007). Until the delivery of new high speed
train sets planned for 2008 loco hauled trains will be used. Seven
refurbished ICRm-coaches have been adapted and made available for this
service. They've been given a special livery of different variaties of red pink and white with a black band along the windows. This coaches can now (april 2007) be seen in some Benelux-sets working between Amsterdam and Brussels on the traditional lines, one Hispeed
ICRm-coach per set. It is expected that more coaches will appear in Hispeed colours.

Attached a photo of NMBS 1192 pushing a Benelux-set into Dordrecht station, April 4th 2007.Photos by Henk Hartsuiker

"ProRail must stop rail works"

3 April 2007

AMSTERDAM - Commuters' organisation Rover thinks that rail infrastructure manager ProRail should be prohibited from starting any more work on the tracks.

A spokesperson for Rover said this on Tuesday in response to the software problems that seriously disrupted train service in Noord-Brabant this morning."If ProRail is unable to carry out the work without interrupting other service, then maintenance on the tracks should be stopped. It may not all be up to date in that case, but at least it works."

Rover is considering sending a letter to Minister for Transport and Water Management Camiel Eurlings.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Update March 2007

More GTW sets ordered

Veolia Transport Nederland has ordered electric GTW trainsets from Stadler for operation on hte Heuvellandlign between Maastricht - Heeran - Kerkrade. Three GTW2/6 EMU's and five GTW 2/6 EMU's will be delivered in 2008 suplementing a number of GTW DMU's already on order for the operator. It is expected thast CP Rail will provide the finance under a leae arrangement in the same manner as for the DMU's

ERS obtains access to the Belgian Network

Rotterdam based ERS (European Rail Shuttle) has now obtained full certification for operation on the Belgian network and plans to introduce a new intermodal train betwen Zeebrugge and Rotterdam from April 2007. Five additional locomotives will be acquired to cope with increased traffic - probably Class 66 type machines from General Motors

Brussells - Luxembourg Upgrade

Infrabel the Bedlgian infrastructure company launched a programme to upgrade 175KM of the Brussells - Luxembourg line in March. The work is centred on the line between Louvain-la-Neuve and hte frontier at Sterpenich. This will invloive easing curves and improving the layouts at Jemelle, Ciney and Gembloux raising line speeds to 160km/h from 130km/h resulting ina reduction of 20 minutes in the overall journey time by 2013.

New Connections for Brussels Airport

Hanze Line gets go ahead.

The 50km Hanze line which links Lelystad and Zwollwe has finally got the go ahead with the start of works to link the two centres of population. An expected time saving of 15 minutes between Amsterdam and the northern cities is predicted for the new line which will also be 9km shorter that the route via Amersfoort. The line will be designed to handle freight and 200km/h passenger trains although there is currentlya lack of suitable rolling stock that is capable of this speed.

A frequency of two inter-city and two stoping trains per hour is envisaged and the line will also be able to accommodate up to 30 freight trains per day. The latter are seen as necessary following the cancelaltion of the planned northern branch of the Betuwe route and the Amsterndam-Groningen Zuider-Zee line.

The line is expexted to open in 2013 and cost Euro 900m. The exisiting Kampen branch from Zwolle is expected to close at the same time.

SNCB Plans New Tunnel

Limited train service to Rotterdam

30 March 2007

AMSTERDAM - Anyone planning to travel to Rotterdam this weekend by train should take into account serious delays.

Work on the tracks will result in little or no train service to and from Rotterdam on both Saturday and Sunday. Most of the work will take place on Sunday.The NS railways will be operating buses on routes where train service is stopped. Train tickets will be valid on trams, metros and buses to destinations normally serviced by trains.

Travellers are being told to expect delays of 30 to 90 minutes.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

NS introduces new high-speed branch

27 March 2007

AMSTERDAM - The NS is introducing a new high-speed train service under the name Hispeed, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

The railway company announced this today. NS Hispeed is the brand name under which the High Speed Alliance (HSA) will carry out its activities. NS has a 90-percent stake in HSA, while 10 percent is owner by KLM airlines.

Thalys, ICE and the new high-speed train operating on the HSL-Zuid line will all be part of Hispeed's operations.

During a press presentation at the AutoRai automotive fair Nol Dobken, director of the HSA, said that that Hispeed expects to be carrying some 24 million passengers by 2010. The company also expects to have a 10-percent share of the market in the Schiphol-Rotterdam transport corridor.

The high-speed trains on the HSL-Zuid train will shorten the travelling time between Amsterdam and Rotterdam to 36 minutes. The trip from Amsterdam to Paris will take only 3 hours and 13 minutes. The first trains will be in operation on the HSL-Zuid line in December this year.

KLM bought a stake in the HSA in 2000 since the project is expected to increase the accessibility of Schiphol. KLM also wanted to ensure it would have more input in the so-called "air-rail product."

Hans de Roos, head of Alliances at KLM, said on Tuesday that the airline does not plan to increase its stake within the alliance with the NS.

New Class 6400 Livery

Photo by Mr R W Beech

Train delays till after rush hour

13 March 2007

AMSTERDAM - Commuters in the Amsterdam area will most likely face delays during the morning rush hour because of the collision at the Amsterdam Muiderpoort station last night. The intercity trains to Deventer will not be running, a spokesperson for ProRail said this morning.The train that was derailed in the collision will be put back on the rails this afternoon. A passenger train collided with an empty train at about 6.30 p.m. last night. No one was injured.

Because of a shortage of equipment there will be no international intercity trains between Amsterdam and Rotterdam - these usually run once an hour.Train traffic to and from Amsterdam from Amersfoort and Utrecht was stopped for several hours last night. Operation on the Amsterdam-Utrecht line could resume at 22.45 p.m.

Rover, the organisation that promotes the rights of public transport users, said in a reaction last night that safety on the rails is going "downhill." "There were collisions in Arnhem and Rotterdam recently, now it's gone wrong in Amsterdam," said Rikus Spithorst of Rover. "We don't yet know the cause of the collision but the situation is extremely worrying."

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Trains to Amsterdam stopped

1 March 2007

AMSTERDAM - Train traffic to and from Amsterdam was stopped on Thursday morning at about 9.30 a.m.

A spokesperson for rail network manager ProRail said a systems failure with regard to traffic signals and switches made this necessary. It is not certain how long this situation will continue. The NS website warns travellers to expect significant delays of more than an hour.

Trains were still not running as of 11 a.m. this morning.Apparently a hard disk needs to be replaced and the system will be restarted.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Update February 2007

RandstadRail Test Ride Quite Successful

12 February 2007

AMSTERDAM ? The test ride of Line 3 of the RandstadRail between The Hague?s Central Station and Loosduinen went off nearly without a hitch, The Hague?s tram company HTM spokesperson told ANP.

Many people took part in the test ride of the light rail, he said. Everything worked well, but the light rail did encounter a few hindrances. Passengers still have to get used to the new situation, the spokesman said.

The first train started out at 5:30 on Monday morning. During rush hour, the trains will ride every five minutes. A conductor will be present in every carriage to assist the passengers, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile at the Central Station in The Hague, some passengers had to wait for quite a while this morning until two light rail trains arrived at the same time. The test ride of the new light rail had originally been planned for 29 January but was postponed twice because of safety concerns.

The new light rail will connect The Hague, Rotterdam and Zoetermeer. The plan has been facing difficulties since October due to several derailments, after which the national transport inspectorate banned most of the light rail from operation until further tests. Only the part in Rotterdam between Hofplein and Nootdorp continued running. The local government hopes that RandstadRail will reopen gradually in the coming months.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Fewer trains today
8 February 2007

AMSTERDAM ? The NS and ProRail will be operating fewer trains on the most busily travelled routes in the Randstad on Thursday after the morning rush hour.

This decision comes in response to the severe weather expected today. The adapted timetable will be in effect until after the evening rush hour.

The transport companies hope that running fewer trains will keep through-traffic on the railways running smoothly. More assistance teams will be on stand-by and more personnel will be on hand at stations.

[Copyright Expatica + ANP 2007]

Update January 2007

Haaglanden knew of RandstadRail problems

26 January 2007
 
AMSTERDAM The Haaglanden metropolitan district failed to inform the Transport and Water Management Inspectorate of problems during the preparatory phase of RandstadRail. As a result the inspectorate granted the company permission to start operation on the light-rail network even though there were ongoing problems with the mechanics and software for switch points.

Confidential memos published by the Volkskrant on Friday indicate that officials of the Haaglanden metropolitan district knew that it would be irresponsible to start trains on the full network in and around The Hague, Zoetermeer and Rotterdam at the end of October.

Because of this, service was only started on one line on 29 October. Four trains subsequently derailed on this line, wounding 15 people. We had not been informed of the problems at the time we granted permission to start operation on that route,? said a spokesperson from the Transport Inspectorate.

[Copyright Expatica + ANP 2007]

Dutch rail NS fails to run on time

24 January 2007

AMSTERDAM - For the second year in a row, Dutch rail NS has not come up to standard as far as getting the trains to run on time is concerned.

Of all the trains last year, only 84.8 percent ran according to schedule, whereas it should have been 86 percent. The NS hopes that the new timetable that went into effect on 10 December would provide a more dependable train service.

Last year, the NS said that they expected that, in 2007, between 87 and 89 percent of the trains would be running according to schedule. The NS is satisfied with a number of other matters that have come out of the on-going customer-satisfaction study. For example, the number of satisfied customers (with a grade of 7 or higher for the NS) rose last year from 67 to 68 percent and the feeling of security rose to 74 percent (from 71 percent in 2005). The number of travelers using the NS has increased in two years by 10 percent.

The customers were slightly more positive about the information provision during delays and the NS has also set up a number of projects to further improve the information to travelers. To this end, in the Spring, the intercity trains will be provided with TV screens with current travel information.  The consumer interest groups are "pleased" that travelers feel safer in the train and that they are, generally speaking, satisfied about traveling by train.

There is, however, also some criticism.

"The majority of train travelers last year were not really satisfied about the punctuality of the NS and about the provision of information during delays," according to the reactions of the organisations, including Rover, the ANWB (Dutch Auto Club) and the Consumer's Union. They urge an independent investigation to uncover the reasons why the NS targets have not been met.

"Now that, once again, the punctuality targets and the offer of good connections have not been achieved, as promised," the organisations also want the NS to liberalise the 'money-back' regulation for travelers who are affected by the delays.        

[Copyright Expatica News 2007]

Train transport returns to
normal after savage storm

19 January 2007

AMSTERDAM ? Train traffic started to return to normal in most parts of the Netherlands on Friday morning after rail transport was shut down during Thursday's savage storm. Train cancellations were still being reported, however, in the east and south-east of the country on Friday morning.The south-westerly storm that hit the Netherlands on Thursday led to dangerous situations on the rail network, forcing the cancellation of most services.

Fallen trees and broken overhead cabling played havoc with the rail network and network authority ProRail has estimated the damage bill to be EUR 1 to 2 million. Some 6,000 passengers who were left stranded on Thursday night were given shelter and food by the Red Cross.Commuters were given shelter, for example, at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht and the RAI in Amsterdam where camp beds were set up.Dutch rail NS has announced that any train tickets that were bought on Thursday will remain valid on Friday.

The Friday morning peak-hour on the nation's roads passed off smoothly and there were no lingering problems from the storm.The national police force KLPD recorded 172 accidents on Thursday, four times than normal.At the height of the peak-hour on Thursday night, traffic jams extended to 430km between 5 and 5.30pm.But motorists association ANWB said this was not extreme given the poor weather. It said many motorists either left early, late or not at all.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Update December 2006

More Trains for ERS

European Rail Shuttle (ERS) has signed a new deal with P and O Ferrymasters that will see an increase in the number of trains from 11 to 16 operating from Rotterdam to Melzo in Italy and from 4 to 5 from Rotterdam to Padua. ERS will now handle more than half of P anad O's containers in this way and can cite better transit times and a willingness to install protective devices to the 45ft containers to deter thieves

Thalys

Unit 4532 has gained vynal adverts for the Fortis bank

New Workshops

Voith Railservices BV, has opened a new workshop at Leeuwarden to service the new GTW DMU's that hve been ordered by Arriva for use on the Norrned services from Leeuwarden and Groningen. The building is 70m long by 20m wide and consists of two tracks.The cost was Euo 4.5m

Delays for HSL Zuid

Damage discovered on the walls of the tunnel close to Rotterdam Airport is likely to delay the official handover of the Northern section of the new line from October 2006 tp April 2007. The cause is thought to have been severe weather during the construction phase and the damage is to be corrected by putting a new layer of concrete over the existing wall face.

This delay will have a knock on to the testing phase for the new line for the HSA which has been compounded by the need to replace rails on an 800m section of the line at Rijpwetering near Leiderdorp whcih has moved by more than 30mm which is beyond acceptable tolerances for high speed lines.

Koploper Refurbishment

ICM three car Koploper unit number 4011 has undergone a mid life refurbishment having spent more than a year at the Haarlem warkshops of Nedtrain. Airconidtioning has been fitted to the trains which have also had seating numbers increased by removal of the kitchen area and replacement of the existing seats by thinner ones. The installation of AC has seen all the opening windows removed except one for emergency purposes.

The unit has subsquently gone to Vienna for climate testing and when returned to NS will be officially presented to the press as a trial unit to determin the full extent of the forthcoming mid life refurbishment of the whole class.

More GTW DMU's

Stadler, the builder of the GTW DMU units, has just received an order worth Euro 50m for 16 more units for Veolia Transport Nederland. Destined for the Maaslijn (Nijmegan-Venlo-Roermond), there will be 10 two car GTW 2/6 versions and 6 GTW 2/8 units. The new units will be delivered at the end of 2007 and in the meantime DH single and 2 car 3100/3200 units will be hired from NS to work the services. These will be released from the Noordned lines on introductiuon of new units for Arriva.

Electric rolling stock is expected to be ordered soon for use on the Masstricht Randwijk - Heerlen- Kerkrade line which is currently operated with Mat 64 two car units.

Flirt Unit Testing

SSB lent one of its four car dual voltage FLIRT trainsets number 521 011 for tests on hte HSL Zuid and Betuwe routes. Ariving on 30th September, the unit moved to the Betwue route on 1st October after a speedy test on the HSL. It was back on the HSL on 5th October after which the set was sent to Hungary for trials.

The tests included electromagnetic compatability.

New NS train timetable
to meet initial problems

6 December 2006

AMSTERDAM ? Dutch rail operator NS will switch to a new timetable on Sunday but the changeover is not expected to occur without problems.

The NS said on Wednesday it is inevitable that problems will occur in such a large operation.It said commuters and NS staff will need time to adjust to the new train times.But to restrict the problems, the NS will operate with extra staff and equipment in the first few days.A daily evaluation will also be made to quickly respond to any concerns.

With the slogan 'More, easy and reliable' (Meer, gemakkelijk en betrouwbaar), the NS has unveiled the new timetable on its website www.ns.nl.

"The train traveller gets more choice and stopover possibilities. It will be easier to remember the departure times due to a clearer travel scheme: a train every 15 minutes," the NS said.

"Moreover, services will be more reliable with this new service timetable."

The big question is whether there will be sufficient trains and staff to carry out the new timetable. An extra 200 train journeys will be made, requiring 55 extra drivers.Unions have already warned for a lack of staff. The NS is also fearful of complaints from commuters about too short and overly full trains. It has opted to deploy extra trains to ward off anticipated problems.Extra staff have been trained in recent months, some of whom have come from freight transport and bus company Arriva.

Under the new timetable, the NS will operate with intercities that only stop at the larger stations and smaller sprint trains that stop everywhere. The stop trains will disappear from the timetable.By using two different types of train journeys, the NS hopes to deploy more trains per hour over the same network.

The Schiphol tunnel has been used as the timetable base. The number of trains that can run through the tunnel determines how much capacity there is on the rest of the rail network. The tunnel is the aorta of the Dutch railway system.

Unions believe that Monday will not be a good indication of whether the new timetable will work because many people will depart an hour earlier than normal or take the car on the timetable's 'first' day.They suggest instead that it will only be known in about two weeks time if the new system works.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2006]

Update November 2006

Passengers wounded in Arnhem train crash

21 November 2006

ARNHEM - The firemen had to cut the deformed train carriage open to release one of the passengers stuck in a train arriving from Zutphen at Arnhem station Tuesday morning, after a cargo train crashed into it.

Four severely wounded passengers were hospitalized. Fifteen more people had to be treated for minor injuries, said a spokesman for the South Gelderland police department, newspaper 'De Volkskrant' reported.

The crash occurred at 10.15 am. The accident most probably was due to the operation of a wrong switch. According to one of the train station workers, one of the locomotive drivers had anticipated the crash and had run out of his cabin. It remains unclear which of the two drivers it was.

The police reported that the cargo train wasn't carrying any dangerous substances. Most of the train platforms at the station remained closed for a prolonged period, which resulted in serious delays.

The train involved was hauled by ACTS Class 66 MRCE 513-9 which collided with plan V unit 826 and plan T unit 531. The latter 2 formed the stoptrain from Zutphen to Nijmegen whereas
the Class 66 headed a Freightliner to the Czech Republic.

Rail crash leads to long
delays at Rotterdam CS

20 November 2006

AMSTERDAM - Rail traffic to and from Rotterdam Central station was seriously disrupted on Monday due to a collision between a goods train and an empty passenger train.

A spokesman for Dutch rail NS said the accident took place at about 10am and rail traffic did not resume again until after 2pm.

Fewer trains than normal were operating between Rotterdam-Schiedam Central, Rotterdam-Dordrecht, Rotterdam-Leiden and Rotterdam-Gouda.Delays ranging from 15-30 minutes were reported extending into Monday evening.

The collision caused extensive damage to the extension of the number 14 railway line at Rotterdam Central, but both train drivers were uninjured. The goods train was carrying various loads, such as bottles of whiskey. A large number of containers were badly damaged.

Rail network authority ProRail said work to clear the debris will take up almost the entire day, while repairs to damaged overhead cabling and rails will take much longer. ProRail expects the repair work will take two days.

The accident involved empty NS sprinter 2964 coupled to sprinter 2995 which collided with a Freightliner headed by ACTS 5811 on the north side of Rotterdam CS. The first coach of sprinter 2964 hit the Freightliner somewhere in the middle and causing it to derail while several containers were scattered all over the tracks causing major damage to the rails and the overhead wiring. Train services to Rotterdam were cancelled or delayed for the whole day and it is expected that it will take days to clear up the mess and repair the damage. Fortunately nobody was hurt in this accident. It also appears that loco 5811 suffered no damage.Investigations as to the cause of this accident are ongoing.

Disatisfaction with New NS Timetables

Significant changes are to take place to NS services with the new timetable change on 10th December.. The intention is to provide a fast train every thrty minutes on all main lines interspersed with two stopping trains each hour. On the busiest routes in the Randstad area this frequesncy is doubled with four fast and four slow making 8 trains per hour.

Although several new stations will be opened the new timetable is proving unpopular as many journeys will now require a change on route where in the old timetable through trains ran and in some cases this is mateched by an incease in journey times.

As part of this timetable recast, Amsterdam to Berln trains will no longer start or termiante at Amsteradam Centraal and are now to be diverted to Schipol, calling also at Amsterdam Zuid. Connections for Amsterdam Centraal wil in future have to be made at Amersfoort.

With the timetable change comes the trakeover of more minor lines by private operators.

Belgian High Speed Line to open in June 2007

Services over the new Belgian high speed line between Antwerp and Noorderkempen will commence in June 2007 with up to 16 trains a day an a 15m journey time from the new Level 1 at Antwerp station. This will be followed in December 2007 by the new revised Benelux service between Brussels and Amsterdam offering 16 trains a day in conjunction with the Dutch High Speed Allaince (HSA). HSA, which has a 15 year concession will operate loco hauled trains of coventional stock pending delivery of the dedicated trains in December 2008. Service reductions of 25 minutes are expected.

Thalys services will use the line from April 2008 (following modifications to the signalling system on the TGV units). Ultimate journey time aspiration is 106 minutes for services between the two capital cities.

Internet site shows live train information

Up-to-date information on delays and schedule changes may help travellers to decide on best travel route

2 November 2006

AMSTERDAM - Traffic-jam information site www.traphic.nl also offers up-to-date information on travelling by train as from Wednesday.

On the site an interactive map of the rail net is shown . Stations are highlighted then in several colours, which indicate if there are delays. When a station gets clicked on, an overview of the current departure times as from that location can be seen .

The site already offers traffic-jam information for a longer time. Mobility company Vialis and the NS railroad hopes that travellers will compare the train information, and then choose if they will travel with the car or via the public transport.

[Copyright Expatica News 2006]  

Update October 2006

Parliament wants to allow trains to drive more rapidly

Increased speed along with an investment of millions of euros will add minutes of time savings for train travellers on a number of routes

26 October 2006

THE HAGUE - A wide majority in the Parliament wants the train speed to be increased (up to 160 kilometres per hour) on a number of routes in the Netherlands. In the coming years approximately 70 million euros must be invested in safety and security systems, extra track and other railway infrastructure in order to make that possible.

The CDA and the PvdA came Thursday during the budget discussions of the Ministry of Transport and Water with an amendment in which they - in the broad vision - stand behind a plan from the NS Dutch Railways. "By reserving this extra money, rapid improvements to the railway services will be possible." stated Eddy van Hijum of the CDA.

Currently up to 140 kilometres per hour can be driven on the Dutch tracks. Within two years there must be new, faster curves constructed on a number of track routes.

In that period the signals and also the procedure for the entry by trains into stations can be improved. Moreover the safety systems on a number of routes must be adapted. If that all occurs, presently trains will be able to drive at 160 kilometres per hour on the busy lines of Schiphol-Den Haag, Utrecht-Amsterdam, Boxtel-Eindhoven and on the Flevolijn (direction Lelystad).

By the extra investments up to three minutes travel time profit is possible on a considerable number of routes. The Parliament recently still had complaints concerning the new time tables of the Dutch railways, because the travel time increased on a number of routes.

Transport specialist Pieter Hofstra of the VVD is just like the CDA and the PvdA enthusiastic concerning the plan. "In itself we heartily support it, but it must then be made clear that the money is not taken away from the construction of roadways ''. Hofstra stated that the fast improvement plan must be able to be financed from the fund of one billion Euros which has been reserved annually for railway administrator ProRail. "They are nevertheless already responsible for the maintenance and the construction of new track.''

Sharon Dijksma of the PvdA suggested prior to the debate that the remaining money from the fund unforeseen (emergency funds) for the Betuwe route, could be used if the budget of ProRail and NS be would not be sufficient. Van Hijum also thinks this way. "On the 1st of January construction of the Betuwe line starts and according to me there is still 100 million euros in the fund for unforeseen. That money can be used to realise this new plan.''

Also GroenLinks Member of Parliament Wijnand Duyvendak also agreed strongly for a substantial financial injection for faster trains. But that money, as far as he is concerned, must come from the fund for the construction of peak-hour lanes.

[Copyright Expatica News 2006]

Utrecht

Serious train delays were being reported around Utrecht on Wednesday after a railway works train destroyed several signals at about 2.30am.A spokesman for rail network authority ProRail said part of a moving platform was jutting out from the train and it destroyed everything it collided with.Commuters between Utrecht and Den Bosch were experiencing long delays on Wednesday. Only a few trains were departing per hour.

Repairs were completed at about 8am, but it took the best part of the morning before trains started run anywhere close to schedule. No buses were available for alternative transport. Rail transport from Utrecht to The Hague and Rotterdam was also disrupted. No 'fast trains' were operating in the morning peak-hour.

Delays were also reported on the Utrecht-Amersfoort route, where two signals were destroyed.

It is not yet certain the extent of the damage to railway infrastructure, but ProRail was kept busy throughout the night repairing the damage.A spokesman for Dutch rail NS said there were no problems reported on platforms during the morning rush-hour, despite the fact it was extremely busy at Utrecht CS

Forest Depot to Maintain Thalys Units

Commencing January 2007, Forest depot in Brussells will be responsible for the maintenance of 20 Thalys TGV unites owned by SNCF. This is in addition to the PBKA sets that are already maintained there. THe agreement will last for 10 years but is thought to be foir an indefinate period.

Forest currently looks after 17 quadricurrant PBKA's, 10 triple voltage PBA's and threee Eurostars although the latter are to transfer to Le Landy in Paris at that timje.

60 more staff are to be recrutied to join the 300 alredy working there. Forest has an ISO 9001 certification.

HSL Zuid certification

The southern section of the HSL high speed line between Rotterdam and the Belgina border has been awarded a certificate of availability COA. IN essence this means that all the required technical and safety standards have been complied with and that the line can be operated

Policitical Controversy over new NS Timetable

Major changes to service pattersn are to be brought on with the December 2006 timetable cahnge and there will also be a number of route changes although oin most lines frequency will also increase. The current service pattern of Inter-City, fast and stopping trains will move to a two tier system of Inter-City and stopping trains only. There are more than 200 extra trains on most days representinga 4% increase.

The downside of these changes are that for many people, journey times will increase, particularly on services serving the north of the country and the east. Despite the view of the majority in Parliament the tranasport minister has nevertheless approved the timetable and this has created much political controversy particulalry since it subsequently emerged that NS has a critical shortyage of rtolling stock and staff to service the new timetable. This is likely to result oin about 1000 services being short formed of which 400 are severerly short and 50 being descrided as crisis.

The problem has been compounded by the fact that NS has to supply 70 ICRm coaches for use on the High Speed line as the new stock for those services is late as are the new Sprinter EMU's NS has been reinstating stock held in strategic reserve or held for scrapping and these vehicles are undergoing heavy maintenance before re-entering service. Nevertheless even with this move and the retetion of the Mat64 stock, NS still does not have enough trains and is actively searching for stcok from abroad. (Plenty of MK3 and MK2 stock lying about in sidings in hte UK - Webmaster!)

New Trams Order

STIB, the Brussells transport authority has ordered 22 additional bi-directional Flexity Outlook trams. This order forms part of a five year deal signed with Bombardier in October 2003 and includes maintenance of key components. for 15 years wth spare part provision for 10 years. STIB has now ordered a total of 68 of these units with delivery expected between May 2007 and March 2008. The value of this latest order is €52m.

Soumagne Tunnel

The new 6530 metre tunnel on the Liege Hammerbrucke section of the new line linking Brussels with Germany has been completed after 4 years work. 25,000 people turned up on 23rd and 24th September to walk through the tunnel. When the new line is completed in 2007, journey times between Liege and Cologne will reduce from 85 minutes to 58 minutes.

SNCB and Post Office in Booking Office Experiment.

Stations at Moustier and Kontich are to be provided with facilites to sell basic postal services at the ticket offices in an attempt to find a way to increase income that will allow the railway to keep the stations manned. In a reciprocal arrangement, post offices in Lebbeke and Courcelles will be able to sell train tickets

Update January 2005

More ACTS services

ACTS, the independent open access operator on the NS system has apparently picked up a contract to transport wood chips between Roosendaal and Beeskow in Germany. ACTS tractoin, Class 1200 or UK Class 58's are used on the weekly service being echanged for German locomotives at the Dutch Border.

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