NETHERLANDS: Infrastructure manager ProRail has awarded Swietelsky Rail Benelux a contract to upgrade, partly double-track and electrify the 88 km Nijmegen – Roermond line.
The Maaslijn is one of the longest and most intensively used diesel-operated single-track lines in the Netherlands, with the Arriva-operated services carrying around 22 000 passengers/day. The upgrading project is intended to improve both capacity and performance.
The work includes the double-tracking at Cuijk, Boxmeer, Venray and Reuver, improving safety at 20 level crossings and easing curves to enable the line speed to be increased from 100 to 140 km/h.
Cost increase
ProRail cancelled its original tender for the works last year, explaining that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, increasing materials costs and the effects of the pandemic on the supply chain had forced it to reconsider its approach.
In September this year the province of Limburg agreed to pay the additional €12m required for the scheme to proceed; the province hopes that the national Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management will contribute towards this sum, as it believes that the project is of national as well as local significance.
The total cost of the work is now estimated at €358m, up from the original budget of €155m. Completion is envisaged for the end of 2027, rather than the earlier target of 2020.
