Sir - Your report on the Iron Rhine in RG 7.00 p437, apart from the confusing layout making it hard to read, was also misleading and, in places, erroneous. The last through train - a piggyback service from Antwerpen to the Ruhr - ran on May 31 1991. The river on the map should read Maas instead of Scheldt, and the Betuwe Line will not run from Rotterdam to Eindhoven, but to the German border near Arnhem.
A glance at the map will tell you that the Iron Rhine basically will not be of much help in relieving Dutch rail congestion. Amsterdam to the Ruhr via the Iron Rhine is not a real option, as it would double the mileage. It is not even an option from Rotterdam as the connection between Roosendaal and Antwerpen is fully occupied. In fact, Railinfrabeheer is planning a relief line from Bergen op Zoom to the Antwerpen port area. For those reasons, the Iron Rhine is not at all attractive to Dutch operators. In a fully liberated European rail market Railion Benelux could operate the Bochum - Antwerpen trains, which carry spares for Opel cars and use Dutch tracks because of poor performance by SNCB, on the Iron Rhine as the shortest route. But operators may not use French and Belgian tracks without involving the national railways.
Dutch involvement is a political matter - a trade-off of interests. The Belgians want to reuse the Iron Rhine to gain quick access to Germany, and to do so they need to co-operate with the Dutch. The Dutch for their part cannot build the HSL Zuid high speed link between Antwerpen and Rotterdam on the preferred route without the co-operation of the Belgian government. Even the dredging of the Western Scheldt river, to improve access to the port of Antwerpen, has been dragged into the negotiations.
The east-west Tilburg - Eindhoven line has had a freight capacity problem for years, but a temporary solution was found, if at the expense of the number of passenger trains. The Neerpelt - Weert part of the Iron Rhine is in fairly good condition and is regularly used for specials. The real problem is the Meinweg area between Roermond and Dalheim, which was turned into a nature reserve to halt further developments. The only thing Transport Minister Tineke Netelenbos promised is the use of this part of the track for the time being. But by Dutch law, an environmental impact assessment is inevitable. The signalling and level crossing equipment were dismantled as quickly and silently as weeds grow in the Meinweg nature reserve. None of us can predict the future, but in my opinion it is quite unlikely that there will be trains running on the Iron Rhine again in autumn 2001.
Roelof van der Molen
Olst, The Netherlands
