The Netherlands is planning change its approach to priority on the railways: the country will take the highest priority designation away from passenger trains. Soon, commuters and travellers will have to yield to the military. Freight ends up at the bottom of the priority list.
There is a widespread expectation that there will be more military trains on the Dutch rail network in the near future. The country has various ports from where military equipment is transported towards the east, and for that reason, is a key transit location for defence purposes.
However, that also poses a real challenge to the country and rail infrastructure manager ProRail. The network is already highly congested, and there is barely any free space for military trains. That calls for a policy change.
Only urgent trains will go first
“You can see that yellow-blue NS [passenger] trains now have the highest priority on the track. Freight transport comes next. And then, at the very bottom, military trains follow”, State Secretary Thierry Aartsen is quoted as saying by news outlet NOS. “That’s no longer appropriate in these times of [security] threats. We haven’t arranged this properly.”
An important detail: the policy change does not immediately mean that military trains will get priority over all other trains. Only those that have been labelled “urgent” will go first. It is up to the government to decide which trains are to be considered as such.