NETHERLANDS: Infrastructure manager ProRail has awarded Siemens Mobility a €110m contract to modernise the Kijfhoek hump yard southeast of Rotterdam. The project aims to improve efficiency, reliability and safety while reducing lifecycle costs.
An important link between the port and Europe’s inland industrial areas, the largest freight yard in the Netherlands covers 50 ha, with 14 reception sidings, 41 sorting tracks and 12 stabling sidings. The yard was completed in 1980, and the current Siemens MSR-32 control system was installed in 1999. Substantial modernisation was undertaken in 2007 in connection with opening of the Betuwe Route freight railway.
Under the latest contract signed on May 20, Siemens is to supply its Trackguard Cargo MSR32 yard automation technology, including turnout control units, retarders, propelling systems and equipment for radio control of hump shunting locomotives. It will also provide 15 years of maintenance services.
Work is scheduled to start in mid-2023 and be completed by the end of 2024, with the yard continuing to operate with at least 50% capacity during the project.
‘Increased automation of freight rail yards is having a considerable impact on the economic efficiency of freight transport, as intelligent systems are allowing goods to be delivered faster, more reliably and in a far more sustainable manner’, said Andre Rodenbeck, CEO of Rail Infrastructure at Siemens Mobility.
