The Netherlands desperately lack a vision for rail freight. That is the message of Hans-Willem Vroon, director of RailGood, a Dutch organisation promoting the interests of the rail freight sector. The Dutch government fails to deliver sound rail freight policy, has ignored a parliamentary proposal and sector appeals, and risks falling behind the rest of Europe.
The Netherlands used to have a vision for rail freight. A long time ago, admittedly. Policy plans about the organisation of public space, transport and traffic made the fruitful development of rail infrastructure possible in the 1990s. These future-proof plans laid the foundations for the ‘Betuwe line’, a rail freight line from Rotterdam to the border with Germany that opened in 2007.
However, the Dutch government failed to follow up on agreements signed with Germany. It never developed the rail freight line to the German border near the towns of Oldenzaal and Venlo, as was agreed upon. Now, the Dutch government is reluctant to invest in the much-desired ‘Iron Rhine’ rail line connecting the ports of Antwerp, Bruges and Rotterdam with German Nordrhein-Westfalen. Moreover, the Netherlands is stuck with a messy and complex rail infrastructure system. Where did the Netherlands lose its rail vision?
A foreign modality
According to Hans-Willem Vroon, the Netherlands have been lacking a vision for rail freight since 2015. A multitude of reasons underlie this problem.
The Dutch government traditionally prioritises road transport and, as a country with many waterways and shipping companies, likewise prefers to invest in inland shipping. “The Dutch government is very pro-barges. It considers rail a bit of a foreign modality, a German modality,” according to Vroon. Consequently, it also does not allocate enough budgetary means for the development of rail freight.
Moreover, government officials often lack vision on rail freight. The departure of the last members of government that recognised the importance of rail was followed by a de-prioritisation of rail freight policy. Rail freight was relegated from ministerial to state secretary-level.
Consequently, the Dutch government is undermining rail freight as a transport modality and Dutch economic competitiveness altogether, says Vroon. According to him, the current policy is rendering rail freight unviable. For example, the disastrously organised deployment of ERTMS is forcing late 2000s locomotives to be upgraded to the latest version. The bill: 300 million euros in preventable costs. Additionally, the government increased train parking fees sixfold, and subsidies to stimulate the rail freight sector were instead used to reduce negative externalities around railways.
Appeal to the government
In order to turn the tide, RailGood and local residents’ organisations sent an appeal to the minister of infrastructure with the support of the Port of Rotterdam. They proposed to fulfil the agreements signed with Germany on the northern and southern branches of the Betuwe line, to work on the ‘Iron Rhine’ line, to create a ‘Grand Vision’ for the development of rail in the Netherlands and to reduce negative externalities for local residents.
After a meeting with the minister and a parliamentary debate, the rail freight sector set out to develop their ‘Grand Vision’. The document identifies a large number of specific measures that need to be taken in order to get Dutch rail freight infrastructure up to speed while protecting local residents’ interests.
No interest from the ministry
According to the sector’s vision, the Netherlands needs to fix its rail hardware- and software, provide alternative freight routes in the country’s east and south, make all border crossings accessible, and fully connect to the TEN-T network. However, nothing ever came of the elaborate plan. There was no money.
In November 2020, the sector and local residents’ organisations, together with a number of political parties, submitted a parliamentary motion to appeal to the government to come up with a plan. The motion passed with a large majority. Once again, nothing came of it. According to Vroon, the motion ‘disappeared in a shelf’ in the ministry.
The present and the future
The result is that the Netherlands is stuck with a technically complex rail infrastructure system that makes rail freight financially less viable, all the while the government has no eye for it. The Netherlands is falling far behind the EU’s rail freight targets, which envision a market share of 20-25 per cent by 2030. What’s more, the country does not even comply with the European Commission’s 2013 rail guidelines.
The government is finally working on creating a rail freight plan. A January 2023 motion called upon the government to respect the November 2020 appeal, forcing it to direct some attention to rail freight. Time will tell what this motion, and the plan that the government will have to come up with, will bring for rail freight in the Netherlands.
Also read:
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- ‘The Dutch rail freight sector is going to crumble’, says rail freight association
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