ProRail

From Free net encyclopedia

In the Netherlands ProRail is a government task organisation that takes care of maintenance and extensions of the national railway network infrastructure (not the metro or tram), of allocating rail capacity, and of traffic control.

It consists of the following inframanagement organisations:

Railinfrabeheer (Rail Infrastructure Management, RIB)
Railned (railway capacity allocation) (planning more than 52 hours before the day of the train service)
Railverkeersleiding (Traffic Control) (planning from 52 hours before the day of the train service)

The rail capacity supplied by ProRail is used by several public transport operators:

the main one Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS),
the smaller ones NoordNed, Syntus and Connexxion,
one that mainly operates in Germany, DB Regionalbahn Westfalen,

as well as cargo operators, notably Railion.

The fee that the public transport operators have to pay for this (infraheffing) is lower than the cost, but increasing. In 2003 it was € 0.64 per train km and € 0.54 to € 2.16 for stopping at a station.

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