NETHERLANDS Transport Minister Tineke Netelenbos has agreed to postpone the start of Netherlands Railways’ 10-year operating contract, to give the railway time to recover from its current performance problems (RG 9.01 p555). Under the deal, NS will be given a ’pre-franchise’ monopoly of the core network, with the minister reserving the right to demand changes to senior NS management.
Following discussions with the lower house of the Dutch parliament in September, she accepted a five-year improvement programme presented by NS Managing Director Hans Huisinga.
The government will invest an additional 1·4bn guilders into infrastructure improvements designed to improve operational reliability and punctuality. NS is required to lift arrivals within 3 min of booked time from around 80% at present to 89% in 2005, compared to the previous target of 88% this year, and must report progress to the minister every six months.
The infrastructure maintenance, capacity management and train control functions, Railinfrabeheer, Railned and Verkeersleiding, which have been taken out of NS control, will be transferred to a new state-owned holding company, rather than to the ministry.
- On October 1 Mrs Netelenbos approved in principle the reopening of the Iron Rhine corridor across the south of the Netherlands, allowing SNCB to restore Antwerpen - Ruhr freight trains from January 1 2002. However, on September 25 she cancelled plans for the Elst - Nijmegen - Venlo southern branch of the Betuwe route, claiming that there would be sufficient capacity for freight trains on the existing network until 2020 at least. Studies have been commissioned for a new freight link into the port of Antwerpen from the NS main line between Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal.
