The Dutch State Secretary for Public Transport and the Environment Chris Jansen has announced in the letter to Parliament with the ERTMS progress report, that the Zeeland Line is the new location for ERTMS track test. It is expected that that testing and trialling could start in 2029 on the line.
The Zeeland Line has been selected as it is an important connection for both passengers and freight transport services to and from the Port of Zeeland. In long term, the ERTMS deployment will contribute to the interoperability of Zeeland on the European corridor, but experience shows that the introduction of new systems such as ERTMS does not proceed without a hitch. In the initial period, the introduction of ERTMS will lead to few shorter outages but will tackle all interoperability and safety problems when will be put into operation.
This will have an impact on the region. The Province of Zeeland and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management agreed on alternative transport for travellers during the outages due to ERTMS track test. In 2023, there were several months of outages and speed reductions because the track proved to be insufficiently stable. Measures for this issues are currently being investigated and thus there will also be outages in the coming years due to work. The programme will make every effort in the coming years to work with the province and other partners to achieve a good implementation of these agreements. In doing so, account will be taken of keeping the port easily accessible during testing and trials.
In order to mitigate and soften the possible impact of a test track section on the Zeeland Line for passengers and the region, the government together with ProRail and NS concluded on an extensive package of nuisance-reducing and reliability measures.
At the same time, ‘Wind in de Zeilen’ compensation package is delivering EUR 651.9 million in funds to implement various projects in Zeeland Province, including project and measures aiming at increasing the number of passengers through faster and better connections between the Randstad and Brabant regions.
Zeeland is a partner in the Future Vision for Public Transport which includes long-term developments of the train service as well as digitalisation with the introduction of the ERTMS. Due to its unique location near important international corridors and as a location where passenger and freight trains come together, the Zeeland railway is very suitable as a test track section to start the integral implementation of the system. In the long term, the deployment will contribute to the reliability of the connection, but in the initial period this will be accompanied by one long period of outage.
The national authorities have updated the ERTMS programme since 2023 which highlighted that the previously selected location for the ERTMS test track is not longer suitable. The programme focuses on a controlled and feasible introduction of ERTMS during the programme’s changing. This includes starting the implementation at the edges of the rail network, where the impact of any disruption on the rest of the rail network is limited.
When choosing the Zeeland railway, the physical characteristics of the line, the impact on the national timetable and the accessibility for various freight and passenger operators were taken into account. In addition, it is easier to take the step in the rollout to the track section that is planned after the Zeeland Line Lijn on the Kijfhoek – Belgian border section.
Testing ERTMS is an important step in the roll-out strategy of the ERTMS programme. The trail phase includes converted track and trains, new systems as well as the new working methods for which personnel are trained. The aim of testing and trialling is to demonstrate that regular train services can be operated with ERTMS and that the section is prepared for any special situations.
In the coming years, ProRail, the rail infrastructure manager, will replace the current train safety system ATB with ERTMS which will make transition from analogue to a digital track.
In the Netherland, the ERTMS is already introduced on the Amsterdam-Utrecht, Hanzelijn (Hanze Line, between Lelystad and Zwolle) and Betuweroute routes and in the next decade, ProRail will deploy the ERTMS (level 2, baseline 3, release 2) on the following lines:
- Northern regional lines;
- Kijfhoek – Belgian border (part of the North Sea-Mediterranean corridor);
- Weesp – Lelystad and Amsterdam – Weesp – Hilversum (excluding the Amsterdam Westhaven marshalling yard);
- Hoofddorp – Duivendrecht (including Schiphol);
- Utrecht – Meteren (excluding Utrecht marshalling yard);
- Roosendaal – Den Bosch (including Zevenbergschen Hoek and Tilburg-Boxtel);
- Meteren – Eindhoven;
- Eindhoven – Venlo;
For the Northern lines (ENL), Hanzelijn – Lelystad (EHL) and Schiphol – Amsterdam – Almere – Lelystad (ESAAL) routes, ProRail awarded contracts for ERTMS engineering services to five companies.
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