ARRIVA Netherlands has signed a 15-year contract with Stadler to service and maintain the 18 new Wink electro-diesel multiple units and 51 refurbished GTW DMUs, managed by Arriva, which will operate on the Noordelijke Lines concession in Friesland and Groningen.

RAIL freight volumes in the Netherlands declined by 6.1% last year, despite a 1.4% increase in the overall freight transport market, according to newly-published figures from the Dutch Central Statistics Office (CBS).

THE Netherlands government has decided to reconstruct and expand Amsterdam Central and Amsterdam South stations in order to improve accessibility to the Dutch capital and increase the capacity of the city’s rail network.

DUTCH infrastructure manager Prorail and DB Cargo are developing plans to test the operation of 740m-long freight trains.

AUSTRIAN Federal Railways (ÖBB) and Netherlands Railways (NS) are developing plans to reintroduce sleeper trains to Amsterdam, which was severed from the European night train network by the contraction and eventual abandonment of German Rail's (DB) City Night Line services.

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) has agreed with French leasing company Akiem to sell and lease back 45 class 186 Traxx MS2 four-voltage locomotives.

The opening of the Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp HSL South high-speed line in 2009 failed to live up to expectations with the collapse of the Amsterdam - Brussels Fyra high-speed service in 2012, leaving Thalys as the sole operator. However, with the recent introduction of new services, the line is busy and, as Quintus Vosman reports, now requires investment to improve reliability.

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) has confirmed it is planning to boost seating capacity on domestic services on HSL South in addition to the previously-announced increase in frequencies to cope with a surge in passenger numbers.

NETHERLANDS Railways (NS) subsidiary NS International has confirmed it is planning to lease 12 multi-system Siemens Vectron locomotives for Amsterdam Central - Berlin East services.

ELECTRIFICATION of the 6.5km cross-border link between Landgraaf, Netherlands, and Herzogenrath, Germany, was officially launched on April 17 by Mr Heiko Sedlaczek, director of Rhineland Local Transport, Mr Hubert Mackus, councillor for infrastructure and public transport for the Dutch province of Limburg and Mr Jan Mulder, deputy director, region south, for Dutch infrastructure manager Prorail.