The European Union has allocated a EUR 32 million grant to Netherlands to deploy the ERTMS system on board of freight locomotives. The vehicles will travel on Rotterdam (Netherlands) – Genoa (Italy) corridor.
Part of a bigger financing package of other national transport projects worth EUR 83 million, the recent subvention has been granted within TEN-T.
ERTMS deployment, at large scale in Europe, will promote the interoperability of trains with the help of a better signalling technology that will improve the efficiency of trains and ensure a seamless international transport.
The grant allocated to Netherlands covers the installation of ERTMS on board of 300 freight locomotives and is supported with a contribution of EUR 15 million allocated by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure. “By 2023, all locomotives must be equipped with the latest version of ERTMS, the integration of this signalling system being significant for the future development of the national railway network”, said the Ministry of Infrastructure.
However, ERTMS deployment in Netherlands has been recently submitted to critics after a report issued in October by the European Court of Auditors concluded that the procedure is “insufficient” and “too fragmented”. In November, lobby group RailGood sent a petition to the Dutch Parliament asking the adoption of measures to stimulate rail freight transport, measures which included the cancellation of ERTMS deployment on grounds that there were many factors which define it as “operative risk”.
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