Railways In The Netherlands

This book traces the origin, growth, decline, and resurrection of the railway system of the Netherlands from its beginnings to privatization in the 1990s, and places its history in the context of the political and socioeconomic development of the country. At first, the largely agrarian and mercantile Dutch society saw little use for such a novel system of transportation, thanks to a highly developed system of roads and waterways. However, the success of early English railways did not go unnoticed, and in 1834 a plan was developed for a railway from Amsterdam to the Prussian Ruhr area to replace the transportation system along the Rhine River. Although this initial plan was finally abandoned, other lines were opened in 1839. The technology was largely borrowed from England and Belgium, but from the outset Dutch engineers played an important role in the development of the network. Apart from a short-lived state system, the first railways were built and operated by private companies, but when this did not result in an efficient network, the state stepped in again in 1860 to bring coherence. By 1900, the national network was complete, but labor unrest escalated, leading to the national strike of 1903, which reverberated for many years in the Dutch Parliament, railroad board rooms, and socialist political parties. The exigencies of World War I increased the grip of the state on the railways, which ultimately resulted in 1938 in the complete unification of the railways, albeit under public ownership. In the 1920s and 1930s, competition from other forms of transportation resulted in a curtailing of services and the closing of unprofitable lines. World War II devastated the Dutch railway system and necessitated an almost complete rebuilding. In the postwar era, population growth, greater mobility, pollution problems, and lack of space for new highways led to an intensive use of existing railways and the construction of new lines to link new suburbs and airports with the existing network. The privatization craze of the 1990s separated the ownership of the network from its operations, but the final relationship has yet to be established.

The role of railways in urban development is the subject of this book. The central aim is to inquire into how especially the development of high-speed rail and light rail links will affect European cities. The analyses are carried out with special attention given to the broader institutional environment of the railway system, including the shift toward privatised railway companies and internationalisation.

This survey of the 3,000 route kilometers of the railways of Holland, taking in the main centers of population and most of the railway routes in-between. International trains, as well as freight and passenger services are examined, as we visit areas such as Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Zwolle and Utrecht taking in the spectacular Dutch scenery unique.

This proceedings volume consists of selected papers presented at the Eighth International Conference on Computer-Aided Scheduling 0/Public Transport (CASPT 2000), which was held at the conference center of the Konrad rd Adenauer-Foundation in Berlin, Germany, from June 2pt to 23 , 2000. The CASPT 2000 is the continuation of aseries of international workshops and conferences presenting recent research and progress in computer-aided scheduling in public transport.Previous workshops and conferences were held in • Chicago (1975), • Leeds (1980), • Montreal (1983 and 1990), • Hamburg (1987), • Lisbon (1993) and • Cambridge, Mass. (1997).1 With CASPT 2000, our series of workshops and conferences celebrated th its 25 anniversary. Starting with a Workshop on Automated Techniques [or Scheduling 0/ Vehicle Operators [or Urban Public Transportation Services in 1975 the scope and purpose has broadened since and still continues to do so. The previous workshops and conferences were focused on public mass transit, and while this remained the primary focus ofthe 2000 conference, it included also computer-aided scheduling methods being developed and applied in re lated means of passenger transport systems. Commonalities regarding op erations research techniques such as, e.g., column generation techniques and 1 While there were no formal proceedings for the first workshop but only a p- printed copy of all papers issued to participants on arrival, the subsequent ones are weil documented as folIows: Wren, A. (Ed.) (1981). Computer Scheduling 0/ Public Transport. North Holland, Amsterdam.