NS: fast of a dam in Groningen

NS wants to deploy high-speed intercity trains between Amsterdam and Groningen. In addition, a number of stations, such as Lelystad and Assen, will be ignored on this route. The journey time is then reduced by a quarter of an hour. If, in the long term, the new equipment makes it possible to travel 200 kilometers at the hour, the journey time between Amsterdam and Groningen can be reduced to one hour and a half. It's been over two hours now.

Research and a test drive undertaken early next year will show in the coming months whether such a fast long distance is possible and what adjustments are needed for the infrastructure and the equipment. For example, ProRail needs to adapt road sections and level crossings at these higher speeds.

The test is performed with the equipment that NS now uses for Intercity Direct. After 2020, Nova Scotia will have access to new train equipment that can travel 200 kilometers at the hour. An hour and a half travel time is possible if the new technologies allow automatic guided trains, allowing trains to travel much more quickly and thus more efficiently.

According to tests and studies, NS expects that these new intercity trains can be added to the timetable from 2021. deployed. This involves additional intercity trains at peak times, in addition to existing schedules.

Other Routes

If the test is successful, NS would like to introduce such fast intercity connections to other routes, where the existing leg of the route allows: with speeds of 160 or 200 kilometers per hour. This applies to parts of the Amsterdam-Groningen and Amsterdam-Breda routes. The Amsterdam-Utrecht section and then the direction of Nijmegen is suitable for intercity trains that can travel 160 km / hour. From now on, a maximum speed of 140 kilometers at the hour applies in Nova Scotia. The research must show whether more sections of track, elsewhere on the rail network, can be adapted to faster intercity trains.

Closer to Germany

Nova Scotia President Roger van Boxtel, therefore calls Groningen to test this fast toll. "informative" for other regions: "In the future, NS would also like to significantly reduce travel time to other cities in order to make the train more attractive to travelers," Van says. Boxtel. "

The province of Groningen has been working for years on this fast inter-urban issue from and to the Randstad. According to Fleuron de Groningen MP (Traffic and Transport, D66), such a direct intercity network is particularly important for commuting traffic between Randstad and Groningen. According to her, research conducted with travelers must show how important this interest is.

According to Gräper, such high-speed intercity brings not only Randstad from Groningen but also Bremen and Copenhagen closer together. Groningen has been consulting Germany for years with a direct rail link with Germany and Denmark and has 60 million euros for that. For the moment, we meet him on a damaged railway bridge on the German side of the border, the Friesenbrücke over the Ems. Meanwhile, Germany has committed to building a new railway bridge, to be built in 2024.

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