Secretaries of state Stientje van Veldhoven of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management and Enak Ferlemann, German federal commissioner for railway transportation met to discuss the proposal.
A common aim is to make environmentally friendly rail travel more attractive in order to increase its market share with respect to road and air transport.
The plan for achieving this involves improvements to the infrastructure and train frequencies but also interventions to improve passenger information, international ticketing, passenger services and connecting air and train travel.
The results of a common bi-national research project showed that the use of multi-system locomotives and leaving out a few stops will allow a reduction of the running time by roughly 20 minutes, to almost six hours.
Both ministers welcomed the recent decision of DB Fernverkehr to invest in new rolling stock, which will allow the running time to be brought down further.
In the longer time frame the travel time between Amsterdam and Berlin could decrease even more. This will bemade possible by infrastructure projects in Germany between Hamm, Hanover and Berlin.
To further reduce travel time the Van Veldhoven will investigate the possibility of infrastructure investments that can been done on the Dutch railway to speed the connection with Germany.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
