SIEMENS announced on March 13 that The Hague Tramways (HTM) has exercised an option worth around €55m for 20 additional Avenio low-floor LRVs, taking its total order to 60 vehicles.

KING Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands formally inaugurated the rebuilt Rotterdam Central station on March 13.

Transport planners are starting to consider how "big data" retrieved from passenger smart cards, computers and mobile phones could improve the design of urban rail networks and timetables, and improve operations by predicting ridership.

DUTCH railfreight operator Herik Rail Cargo launched its first intermodal service from the port of Amsterdam to the Segrate terminal near Milan on March 3.

THE council of the Dutch city of Maastricht granted planning approval on February 18 for the city centre section of the cross-border regional light rail line to Hasselt, Belgium, allowing tendering to begin for construction of the Dutch part of the route.

INTERNATIONAL high-speed operator Thalys saw revenues and ridership climb on its services from Paris to Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands in 2013 as the withdrawal of Fyra services brought an unexpected increase in traffic between Brussels and Amsterdam.

ROTTERDAM Electric Tram (RET) has exercised an option worth €66m with Bombardier for 16 Flexity Swift LRVs for operation on the Hook of Holland, which is being converted from heavy rail to light metro operation.

DUTCH infrastructure manager ProRail is to equip a further 2800 signals with the so called ATB-vv train protection system, which triggers an automatic brake application if a train passes a danger signal at less than 40km/h.

BELGIUM's state audit office has suspended its investigation into the V250 high-speed train case because it says parties key to the inquiry, including Belgian National Railways (SNCB) and Netherlands Railways (NS), are unwilling to disclose crucial information.

ONE year ago the Dutch-Belgian Fyra high-speed operation collapsed.