Increasing capacity

Strong growth in passenger and freight train transport is expected until at least 2040, to stimulate social and economic growth. To meet this demand, the capacity of the Dutch railway network will need to increase significantly

This capacity increase is associated with multiple challenges because the Dutch network is already the busiest in the EU per kilometre of track. Important subjects are:

• Optimal timetabling and traffic management
• Effective disruption management
• Passenger-oriented design
• Advanced passenger information
• Improved railway safety
• Novel train concepts
• European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS)
• Automatic Train Operation (ATO) (also relevant for the theme ‘reducing the CO2 and energy footprint’)
• Raising the network feed voltage to 3kV network (also relevant for the theme ‘reducing the CO2 and energy footprint’)