There should be more and faster train connections between the Netherlands and Germany. Five Dutch provinces and the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia argue in favor of this in a fire letter to State Secretary Van Veldhoven (D66) of Infrastructure and her German counterpart.
The signatories are demanding investments in short-distance routes such as Enschede-Dortmund, Eindhoven-Düsseldorf and Heerlen-Aachen. They also want money to be invested in high-speed connections to, for example, Berlin. This must reduce air and road traffic.
A one-way ticket Amsterdam-Berlin currently takes at least six hours. “That is not competitive enough compared to flying,” said the South Holland Provincial Executive Floor Vermeulen (VVD) in the NOS Radio 1 News. Vermeulen has developed plans for faster passenger transport together with the other signatories of Gelderland, Overijssel, Limburg, Noord-Brabant and Noordrijn-Westfalen.
One is a faster connection from Amsterdam to Berlin, via Utrecht, Arnhem and a short transfer in Duisburg. “You can win hours with that,” according to Vermeulen.
Van Veldhoven and the NS have been working on accelerating the train to Germany for some time. Last year, the State Secretary wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives that it will certainly take until 2030 before the travel time is considerably shorter.
Billions needed
The deputy criticizes the lack of an international approach. “The programs in the Netherlands and Germany are not connected. Literally and figuratively.”
Billions are needed, Vermeulen thinks. “Yesterday, De Nederlandsche Bank called for continued investment, so I hope the government sees the need to invest in such large infrastructure projects.”
He hopes that Van Veldhoven will follow her German colleague. Last year, the German government and rail carrier Deutsche Bahn agreed on a joint investment of 86 billion euros for “the largest rail modernization of all time in Germany”.
“We can learn that from Germany. If there is something on paper there, money will go,” says Vermeulen.
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