How a lighting innovation is changing European rail yards
Partner articleRailLight, a lighting system specifically designed to make rail lighting more efficient and reduce light pollution, has already been installed in five rail yard projects in the Netherlands. The Dekra certified innovative system by Dutch...Read more
Thalys tests with ERTMS Baseline 3 successfully completed
On behalf of the rail operator Thalys International, Ricardo Certification has completed a test programme with the train control system ERTMS Level 2 Baseline 3 for the Dutch section of the route. The Thalys high-speed...Read moreThe Netherlands concludes: railway cannot cope with extreme weather
The Dutch rail infrastructure cannot cope with extreme winter weather. It will require billions of euros to keep the rail infrastructure available under all circumstances, such as extreme heat in the summer, or winter weather...Read more
How a communications failure crippled the Dutch rail network
The majority of rail traffic in the Netherlands came to a standstill on Monday afternoon due to a malfunction in ProRail’s communication system. Communication between train drivers and train traffic control was blocked. Train traffic...Read more
ERTMS for Dutch northern regional lines
The northern railway lines in the Netherlands will be included in the Dutch ERTMS programme. This means that some 270 kilometres of track in the provinces of Groningen and Friesland will be equipped with ERTMS...Read moreProRail bans ballast stones from three quarries due to harmful quartz dust
ProRail temporarily prohibits the use of stones for track ballast from three certified European quarries. Rocks from these quarries contained too much quartz dust, which is harmful when inhaled. This has emerged from a study...Read more
Dutch state sued for subsidising NS Vienna-Amsterdam night train
A number of interest groups and FlixBus have filed a case to challenge a license and subsidy to Dutch Railways NS for operating a night train connection to Austria. According to them, the decision of...Read more
ProRail signs with Nokia for GSM-R managed services
Nokia will provide operational and managed services for ProRail’s GSM-Railway (GSM-R) voice and data communications network in the Netherlands. The infrastructure manager has also concluded a contract with telecommunications provider Cellnex to set up eighty...Read more
Replacing the train detection in the port of Rotterdam
In the coming years, the current train detection system of track circuits in the Dutch port of Rotterdam on the port railway is being replaced by axle counters. The project is the first large-scale application...Read more
Digital edition RailTech Europe attracts more than eight thousand visitors
With more than 8.000 unique visitors of more than 90 different nationalities RailTech Europe 2021 has been a tremendous success. For three days, visitors of this digital event watched more than 100 speakers on three...Read more
RailTech Europe live blog day 3: Smart Infrastructure
In this blog of RailTech Europe Day 3, you can read updates from the three stages of the digital event, which is all about Smart Infrastructure: sensors, predictive maintenance, data in rail are all discussed....Read more
‘Without ERTMS, rail cannot further digitise’
Without ERTMS, the European rail sector cannot make further steps in digitalisation. This was said by ERTMS coordinator Matthias Ruete at RailTech Europe last week. “ERTMS is the backbone of the digitisation of the railway....Read more
ProRail announces selection of 12 companies for accelerated rollout of ERTMS
ProRail is entering into an “innovation partnership” with twelve companies to accelerate the implementation of ERTMS. This was announced on the second day of RailTech Europe Live. In July 2020, ProRail started the ASAP ERTMS...Read more