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2 Public transport in general 3 Other public transport 4 Other transport 5 See also 6 External links |
(2001)
Two railway arcs will be ready in December 2003:
Rail transport (heavy rail)
Railway tracks
Two new lines are being constructed: the HSL (see below) and a freight line from Rotterdam to Germany, the Betuweroute.
A third arc being constructed is:
ProRail takes care of maintenance and extensions of the national railway network infrastructure (not the metro or tram), allocating rail capacity, and traffic control.
The rail capacity supplied by ProRail is used by five public transport operators (see below) as well as cargo operators: Railion, ERS, ACTS, Shortlines. Also there is Herik Rail, with seven carriages, where trains can be chartered for parties, meetings, etc. The other charter train company is the NESM Nostalgie Expresse; this company makes a lot of trips with historic (steam) trains. They also run some dance and partytrains. See also [1]
There are two crossings of regular railway lines, both non-level and with a train station providing stops on both lines: Amsterdam Sloterdijk (ass) and Duivendrecht (dvd). A third crossing is under construction east of Zoetermeer, also non-level but without stops, one line is the HSL.
(with timetable number)
Non-electrified lines
Railways for public transport
Trains have 1st and 2nd class.
See also:
There is a night service, called Nachtnet (Night Network, although it is just a single U-shaped line) with an hourly service connecting Rotterdam Central, Delft, The Hague Central, Leiden Central, Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam Central, Utrecht Central. Due to the U-shape, the travelling time from the first four stations to Utrecht is longer than during the day.
For metro and tram there are no night services. There are night buses in a number of cities, usually on Friday and Saturday night only, sometimes only during the first part of the night, and per line often in one direction only; e.g. de Connexxion-Niteliner [1].
A public transport pass for train (2nd class), bus, metro and tram costs 3099.50 euro/year (2004). It is also valid on the ferries Vlissingen-Breskens, Amsterdam-IJmuiden and Rotterdam-Dordrecht. It is not valid on most other ferries, nor on the Thalys. Night services by train are included, those by bus are not.
(see also Airports below)
All metros, trams and buses (except the neighborhood buses and night buses) share the National Tariff System.
Public transport in general
Other public transport
Metro
(all standard gauge (1.435 m))Tram / light rail
(all standard gauge (1.435 m))
Randstad Rail is a plan (expected to be operative in 2006) to:
(see www.randstadrail.nl).
In 2003 construction will start of a light rail line between Maastricht and Kerkrade.
See also RijnGouweLijn.
A special bus line is the Zuidtangent, which has largely its own bus lane, with priority at crossings [1].
Bus
Arnhem has an electric trolleybus system.
Bus companies include Arriva, Connex, Connexxion, Hermes, NoordNed, Syntus.
Hermes operates in the southeast of the Netherlands, see [1].
Highways:
National highways (incomplete) (see [1]):
Waterways:
5,046 km, of which 47% is usable by craft of 1,000 metric ton capacity or larger, see List of waterways and [1].
Pipelines:
crude oil 418 km; petroleum products 965 km; natural gas 10,230 km
Ports and harbors:
Amsterdam, Delfzijl, Den Helder, Dordrecht, Eemshaven, Groningen, Haarlem, IJmuiden, Maastricht, Rotterdam, Terneuzen, Utrecht, Vlissingen)
Merchant marine:
Airports:
28 (1999 est.)
Airports - with paved runways:
Airports - with unpaved runways:
Heliports:
1 (1999 est.)
Oddly and unfortunately, for large parts of the Netherlands bus line maps do not seem to be available on the web. However, they are often posted at bus stops and can sometimes also be obtained on paper in bus information offices (sometimes in a less detailed version, e.g. without bus stops being marked). Connexxion has 13 maps on paper that can be sent by mail on request, see [1].
General map showing railways and stations well (i.e. also in smaller scales), but, oddly, without station names:
For general maps see also Geography of the Netherlands#External links. There are hardly any maps on Internet that show virtually all streets as well as tram or bus lines (the maps of Dordrecht and Werkendam mentioned above seem to be the only ones, with on the latter not all lines). However, such maps are available on paper for many cities.Other transport
total:
125,575 km
paved:
113,018 km (including 2,235 km of expressways)
unpaved:
12,557 km (1998 est.)
total:
563 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 4,035,899 GRT/4,576,841 DWT
ships by type:
bulk 3, cargo 343, chemical tanker 41, combination bulk 2, container 56, liquified gas 20, livestock carrier 1, multi-functional large load carrier 8, passenger 8, petroleum tanker 25, refrigerated cargo 32, roll-on/roll-off 16, short-sea passenger 3, specialized tanker 5 (1999 est.)
note:
many Dutch-owned ships are also operating under the registry of Netherlands Antilles (1998 est.)
total:
19
over 3,047 m:
2
2,438 to 3,047 m:
7
1,524 to 2,437 m:
6
914 to 1,523 m:
3
under 914 m:
1 (1999 est.)
The largest airport by far is Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, which is actually one of the largest of Europe. Smaller airports with regular passenger service are Zestienhoven near Rotterdam, Eelde near Groningen, Twenthe airport near Enschede, Eindhoven airport and Maastricht-Aachen airport.
total:
9
914 to 1,523 m:
3
under 914 m:
6 (1999 est.)
See also
External links
Railway maps:
Line maps for other public transport:
The maps of Carto Studio's site [1], though meant only as examples, may also be of some use.Maps showing all streets and also public transport
General map showing railways well, but stations only in larger scales, with station names popping up:
Of these three, only the NS map shows metro lines, without stations, and none show tram or bus lines. www.ovr.nl shows only the single bus stop concerned on the map, not the line or the other stops.
![[1]](http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/pix/nl/trams/Houten/Tram-Houten-08.jpg){kind=link}
![[1]](http://home.wanadoo.nl/batenburg/gfx/buslijn.gif){kind=link}
