ProRail begins triple-tracking of Betuweroute

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Photo: Aerovista Luchtfotografie / Shutterstock.com.
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Dutch infrastructure manager ProRail has begun work to construct a third line on its side of the cross-border Betuweroute freight rail link.

The 3 km section of track between Zevenaar and the German border will help expand the important freight route, which sits on the Rotterdam-Genoa corridor – one of the priority rail corridors identified by the EU.

According to the Port of Rotterdam, around 70 per cent of all freight trains that travel between the Netherlands and Germany use the 174 km Betuweroute.

ProRail has now begun preparing the groundworks before it starts laying track next year. In addition to the track infrastructure, ProRail will renew a footbridge at Kloosterpad as well as remodel an underpass at Kwartiersedijk and a viaduct at Beekseweg.

At the same time on the German side, Deutsche Bahn has already begun an expansion of a 70 km section of the railway between Emmerich and Oberhausen to boost capacity on the route.

The third line on the Netherlands’ side is due to be completed in December 2018. DB has previously indicated that it expects to complete the Emmerich-Oberhausen section in 2023.