Betuweroute

Betuweroute
View of the section at Dodewaard
Route length:	158.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	E5
Power system :	25 kV 50 Hz  ~
Top speed:	120 km / h
Legend Maasvlakte Route from / to Rotterdam High-speed line to Antwerp Kijfhoek Route to Breda North A27 Dordrecht – Elst line A2 Utrecht – Boxtel railway line Dordrecht – Elst line Amsterdam Rijn Canal Dordrecht – Elst line A50 Nijmegen – Arnhem line Pannerdens Canal Zevenaar tunnel Route from Arnhem Netherlands / Germany Route to Oberhausen

Tunnel at Zevenaar .

A freight train at Gellicum

Construction site of the Betuweroute near Meteren, September 2004

The Betuweroute is a railway line ( upgraded line and new line ) in the Netherlands for freight traffic from the port of Rotterdam to Zevenaar near the German-Dutch border. Its name comes from the Dutch Betuwe region , which it partially crosses. It was put into operation in 2007.

The new freight route is part of the EU funding project CODE24 and was built so that the increasing quantities of goods handled in the port of Rotterdam can be transported to the European hinterland as quickly as possible. The highways A 15 and A 1 should be relieved of the enormous increase in truck traffic by the Betuweroute.

course

The 160 km long route is divided into 105 km of new line between the Kijfhoek marshalling yard and Zevenaar , 45 km of upgraded line west of Kijfhoek and 10 km of existing line in the Kijfhoek / Barendrecht area.

The line leads from Maasvlakte over an existing port line to the Kijfhoek marshalling yard (between Rotterdam and Dordrecht ) and from there along the Dutch motorway ( Rijksweg 15 ) in an easterly direction and on to Zevenaar, where it joins the existing Oberhausen – Arnhem railway line . This bundling of traffic routes largely avoids additional pollution of residential areas.

At Barendrecht , the project increased the number of tracks from four to nine. Over a length of 1,500 meters, the route runs in an above-ground noise protection tunnel on which a park, parking spaces and a train station access have been built.

At the end of 2012, the Dutch Ministry of Transport and the infrastructure company ProRail started planning a branch from the Betuweroute to 's-Hertogenbosch , as well as to Venlo and the German border. This should in Meteren branching from the route, and thus a substitute route for freight trains on the existing line supply. Passenger traffic is to be concentrated on this. It is planned to start construction on this route in 2015. ^[outdated]

history

As early as the mid-1980s, a Dutch government commission published the idea of ​​securing the future of the port of Rotterdam by building a purely freight railway line, as the existing rail network did not have enough capacity to smoothly coordinate passenger and freight trains. In June 1990 the Ministry of Transport presented the Betuweroute as a new rail infrastructure project. In 1992 the governments of the Netherlands and Germany signed the Warnemünde Treaty ( Federal Law Gazette 1992 II p. 1103 ). It was u. a. the new construction of the Betuweroute and the three-track expansion of the German connecting line agreed.

In April 1994 the parliament decided to build the Betuweroute. The route was laid down in 1996 by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. It was modified in 1997 and 1998 before construction began in 1998.

Queen Beatrix opened the new route on June 16, 2007 as part of a ceremony near Barendrecht , south of Rotterdam. On June 18, the first regular train ran on the new route.

On November 15, 2007, the overhead line was energized. For the first time in the Netherlands, commercial trips are taking place under a voltage of 25 kilovolts. The contact wire on the connection to the port of Rotterdam was put under tension at the end of 2009.

business

The Betuweroute is partly in competition with a railway connection that has existed since 1879, the Iron Rhine , which connected the Port of Duisburg and the Ruhr area with the Port of Antwerp and is to be put back into operation, but above all it competes with truck traffic .

In mid-2005, Parliament rejected the Transport Minister's proposal to outsource the operation of the route directly to a consortium led by the network operator Prorail for the first three years of operation. At the end of 2005, Prorail, the Rotterdam port authority and the Tow Rail consortium presented a joint plan for operating the route. A joint operating company should spend around 35 million euros annually to operate the route, around half less than previously assumed. At the beginning of 2006, the Dutch Ministry of Transport announced that it would issue two licenses for the operation: The links between the existing network and the new line were to be operated by Prorail, the new line itself by the Green Tulip Railway Company , a company half owned by Prorail and Babcock & Brown Towrail was. The port authorities of Rotterdam and Amsterdam should participate in the project with bonds.

In mid-2006, several companies signed a letter of intent to equip the locomotives planned for the Betuwe route with ETCS. The Dutch Ministry of Transport announced that it would fund the equipping of locomotives with ETCS Level 2 with 15 million euros.

In the first full year of operation in 2008, an average of 200 trains per week used the route in both directions. This increased to around 440 trains in 2011 (a total of around 23,000 train movements) and around 450 in 2012. In 2011, 73% of freight traffic between Rotterdam and Germany ran on the new route, 20% via the border station in Venlo and 3% via the old route from Rotterdam to Emmerich.

technology

The route was equipped by Alstom between Rotterdam and Zevenaar with ETCS Level 2 ( SRS 2.3.0 ) without fixed light signals.

For the first time, ETCS was used on a route primarily used by freight traffic and was adapted to the resulting special conditions (particularly long and heavy trains, low braking power). For the transition from national train control ( ATB ) to ETCS, a special solution that has been shortened compared to the standard procedure was developed. Solutions have also been developed to integrate two flood gates in tunnels and for maneuvering under ETCS (with light signals). The latest version of the signaling system caused considerable problems during commissioning, until the solution was found for the 105-kilometer new line to be operated in one- block operation (one train per direction on the entire line) and all points to be locked.

The electrification of the existing Dutch railway network is considered to be technically problematic. Dutch traction current has a standard 1.5 kilovolt DC voltage, which, in contrast to the now common international AC voltage networks with significantly higher voltage, requires a much thicker overhead contact line or a significantly reduced power of the locomotives. Also, in the Dutch network, it is usually not possible to feed back electricity when braking. As a result, freight trains in the Netherlands are sometimes preferably hauled by diesel locomotives.

In order to solve these problems, the Betuweroute was electrified with the 25 kilovolt 50 Hertz standard in France, although two sections of the route with the normal Dutch network first had to be crossed on the way. On the other hand, the subsequent German system with 15 kilovolts 16.7 Hertz is less problematic, as numerous new electric locomotives are now designed as multi-system vehicles for both systems.

The train control system, which also changes with each network, leads to further problems: The European standard ETCS Level 2 is used for the new line. However, the two sections electrified with 1.5 kilovolts are secured with the Dutch ATB system , while the PZB system is used on the German network .

The Betuweroute has a few short sections with an unusually steep gradient of 25 ‰ for freight traffic (for comparison, the Gotthard mountain route, which is tunneled under precisely because of this , but also significantly longer: 26 ‰).

The Betuweroute is prepared for double-decker container transport . The tunnels were built with a larger profile from the outset, which would allow the contact wire to be raised later. Experience from other countries shows that then only locomotives with a different pantograph could use the route (in Western Europe usually up to 5.5 m, required at least 6.5 m), so that this was done without and the contact wire hangs at normal height.

"Betuwelijn" instead of "Betuweroute"

In the Dutch media and in part in the political discussion, the new line is incorrectly referred to as “Betuwelijn” instead of “Betuweroute”. The Betuwelijn, however, is the existing Elst – Dordrecht line that runs partially parallel to the A 15 and the Betuweroute .

The reason for this mix-up could be that there were actually plans to run the new Betuweroute over the existing Betuwelijn, especially since it was underutilized by the existing passenger traffic. Citizens' protests against the noise and safety concerns associated with the transport of dangerous goods and , on the other hand, the advantages of speed due to the separation of passenger and freight traffic, ultimately made the decision to build a completely new route.

In Germany, the term “Betuwe Line” is used in connection with the three-track expansion of the German connecting line from Zevenaar .

criticism

The Betuweroute was politically controversial in the Netherlands. Because the route crosses some nature reserves and residential areas, the construction of tunnels was necessary. As a result, the budget originally planned for the construction was exceeded by 40–50%, so that the total costs now amount to around 4.7 billion euros. Furthermore, the demolition of several hundred buildings is causing trouble. The political opposition in the Dutch parliament, who considered the project to be financially unsustainable, tried several times in vain to stop construction. The Algemene Rekenkamer (the Dutch Court of Auditors ) also criticized the construction and cost development of the Betuweroute in a study from 2001. Even on the day the line was officially opened, there were blockages by opponents of the line.

At the end of 2003, the Dutch parliament initiated an investigation into the massive cost overruns at HSL Zuid and the Betuweroute. At that time, a cost overrun of around 1.5 billion euros was expected.

Connection route Zevenaar – Oberhausen

In November 2005, the federal government and North Rhine-Westphalia reached an agreement with Deutsche Bahn to set up a freight line between the Dutch border and the port city of Duisburg . In January 2007, the German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee and his Dutch counterpart Karla Peijs agreed to expand the connecting line from Zevenaar via Emmerich am Rhein to Oberhausen to three tracks. As part of the TEN corridor Rotterdam-Genoa, the route is to be equipped with the European train control system ETCS . In July 2013, when a financing agreement was concluded for this project, the earliest possible start of construction was in 2015. In February 2016, the system change point for the transition from 25 kilovolt 50 Hertz AC voltage to 1.5 kilovolt DC voltage was relocated from the newly built section of the Betuweroute to the route in the direction of Amsterdam near Zevenaar, so that from Rotterdam with 25 kilovolt 50 Hertz until the system change can be driven through to 15 kilovolt 16.7 Hertz at Emmerich without having to use a section with 1.5 kilovolts. Since then, two system changes have been necessary for trains traveling from Amsterdam to Emmerich: after leaving Zevenaar from 1.5 kilovolt to 25 kilovolt 50 Hertz (Betuweroute branch) and on the German side before Emmerich from 25 kilovolt 50 Hertz to 15 kilovolt 16.7 Hertz.

Train path prices

In contrast to the rest of the Dutch rail network, the train path price is calculated regardless of the weight of the trains. From 2008 to 2011, it will gradually increase from 1.41 to 2.33 euros per train journey and rail kilometer.

Web links

Commons : Betuweroute  - collection of images

• Andreas Gebbink: The Betuweroute. Between Zee and Zevenaar. In: NetherlandsNet - online information portal about the Netherlands. University of Münster , December 2009, accessed September 1, 2013 . 
• betuwe-voerde.de: Citizens' initiative betuwe - not like that! Voerde

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Betuweroute: Start with difficulties . In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 8/9, 2007, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 382.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Dutch Queen opens Betuweroute . In: Today's railways Europe . August 2007, issue 140, ISSN  1354-2753 , p. 8.
3. ^ "Planning starts for new Betuweroute freight link". Railjournal.com, November 2, 2012, accessed May 2, 2013
4. ↑ ^{a b} Betuweroute under tension . In: Swiss Railway Review , January 2008 edition, ISSN  1022-7113 , p. 38
5. ↑ Betuweroute , Goederenvervoer per spoor. NTG, Nationale Transportguids (Dutch)
6. ↑ Report News from the Betuweroute . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 8–9 / 2005, p. 362.
7. ↑ Notification of operation of the Betuweroute . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 12/2005, p. 593.
8. ^ Announcement of the concession for Betuweroute to Prorail and Babcock & Brown . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . Issue 4/2006, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 188.
9. ^ ETCS agreement for the Betuweroute . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . Issue 8–9 / 2006, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 405.
10. ↑ Cash injection for Betuweroute . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . Issue 8–9 / 2006, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 414.
11. ↑ Keyrail: Facts and Figures ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Dutch) 
12. ↑ François Lacôte, Jacques Pore: ERTMS / ETCS is reality . In: signal + wire . tape 96 , no. 6 , 2004, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 6-12 .
13. ^ Roger Hall: ETCS vehicle equipment in the Netherlands . In: signal + wire . tape 98 , no. 9 , 2006, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 6-10 .
14. ↑ Jacques Pore: ERTMS / ETCS - experiences and perspectives . In: signal + wire . tape 99 , no. 10 , 2007, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 34-40 .
15. ↑ Jari Klomp, Tom Spronk, Ronald Doeleman, Karel Machiels: Implementing ERTMS on the Betuweroute . In: signal + wire . tape 99 , no. 5 , 2007, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 36-41 .
16. ↑ New priority section of the trans-European transport network completed: the Betuweroute starts operating between the Netherlands and Germany . European Commission. June 15, 2007 .: "it is designed to satisfy all possible future innovations (by using, for example, the latest generation of the harmonized European train control system, and by designing the infrastructure for double stack containers)."
17. ↑ THE BETUW ROUTE - Commissie Duivesteijn . Uni Münster .: "Only the increases in inflation and the decision to expand the tunnels for double-stack containers have led to a budget adjustment."
18. ↑ ^{a b} Sabine Tenta: The eye of the needle on the Lower Rhine. Expansion of the Betuwe line. WDR , July 26, 2013, archived from the original on July 28, 2013 ; accessed on September 1, 2013 . 
19. ↑ Notification of expensive new lines . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 1/2004, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 26.
20. ↑ Prof. Dr. Michael Häßler / Reiner Krieger: Press conference on major construction issues 2015 in North Rhine-Westphalia. Construction project Emmerich - Emmerich border (Netherlands) - system change point (overhead line). (No longer available online.) DB Netz AG , February 4, 2015, archived from the original on February 7, 2016 ; Retrieved February 7, 2016 (page 7). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
21. ↑ GeoViewer | DB Netze track. Retrieved June 13, 2019 .