The trains on the high-speed line have to run even slower. Why?

The high-speed line between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which is already plagued by many disruptions, is becoming even slower. While trains on part of the route that bisects the Groene Hart have long been prohibited from reaching the ‘high speed’ of 300 kilometers per hour, but were allowed to travel at a maximum speed of 160 kilometers per hour, this has now been further reduced to 120 kilometers per hour. Five questions about what’s going on.

1 What is causing the new delays on the high-speed line?

Railway manager ProRail announced on Thursday evening that trains may travel less quickly on part of the direct route between the two largest cities in the country. The measure was taken because a ‘quick scan’ by ProRail showed that in a section where a speed limit of 160 kilometers per hour already applied, the speed must be further reduced.

The rapid analysis has shown that another nine viaducts on the section of the route between Hoofddorp and the north entrance of the Groene Harttunnel near Hazerswoude are not strong enough to handle the vibrations associated with fast-moving trains. This was already known for one viaduct at Rijpwetering (just above Leiden). Trains have been running there at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour since the autumn of 2022, because a construction error was discovered in the structure (as viaducts but also bridges, locks and tunnels are referred to in the infrastructure world).

The nine viaducts had the same design as those at Rijpwetering, and therefore the maximum speed had been reduced to 160 km/h as a precaution since the summer of 2023. The quick scan now shows that the same construction errors were indeed made. According to experts, the errors are, among other things, the result of incorrectly driven piles or piles that are too short during the construction of the HSL viaducts – which, as ProRail emphasizes in the press release, was not done by the railway manager but by Rijkswaterstaat.

ProRail now concludes that five viaducts, including the one at Rijpwetering, cannot even travel at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour because cracks have been found there, caused by the construction error with the piles. At Rijpwetering the maximum speed remains 80 kilometers per hour, at the four others the maximum speed increases to 120 kilometers.

On the five viaducts where a construction error has been discovered, but no damage has yet occurred, the maximum speed can in principle remain at 160 kilometers per hour. But because the viaducts are close to each other with the speed limit of 160 or 120 and it is not possible to accelerate and decelerate in between, the trains on the section between Hoofddorp and the Groene Harttunnel basically run 120 kilometers per hour – and therefore 80 at Rijpwetering.

2 What are the consequences for travelers?

ProRail first indicated that the speed reduction will allow safe travel on the high-speed line – despite the cracks. For the rest, the practical consequences for travelers seem to be somewhat reasonable.

The railway manager initially indicated on Thursday evening that trains would be canceled and delays of fifteen minutes could occur. This was mainly because the train service control had to inform the driver by telephone about the maximum speed on certain track sections. During the night, ProRail was able to arrange for the speed limits to be communicated automatically via the security software. This allowed outgoing State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen (Infrastructure, CDA) to announce on Friday that the damage in terms of the timetable was not too bad. According to Heijnen, the same number of trains can continue to run on the route, “as people are used to.”

The NS then announced that there would indeed be no train cancellations in the timetable and that the delays would not amount to fifteen minutes, but a few minutes. However, the chance of train cancellations is greater. “The timetable will become less robust, because the speed reduction will mean that trains will run closer together and there will therefore be less time to catch up on delays,” said a spokesperson. The international trains that use the HSL track – those to Brussels, Paris and London – will also experience delays due to the speed reduction.

3 Okay, it’s not too bad. But isn’t this yet another HSL downer?

Since its opening in 2009, the HSL has indeed had an image of unreliability. Since its construction, the line has suffered from technical failures that undermine the reliability of the service. This was mainly due to the reliability of the rolling stock, with the low point being the removal from the track of the Italian NS trainsets specially ordered for the route between Amsterdam and Brussels after forty days because the bottom plates fell out.

Fyra, as the train service was called at the time, still evokes associations with complete failure. But a lot also went wrong with the infrastructure and safety software on the HSL track in those years.

Due to the accumulation of problems, the timetable for travelers has been structurally unreliable for years. Last year, the Intercity direct, as the NS renamed their train on the route after the Fyra debacle, was the worst performing part of the NS timetable. Last November, at least half of the IC direct trains arrived late.

This year should have been a new start for the HSL. The NS has purchased a whole new series of intercity trains to operate the train connections between Amsterdam and Breda/Eindhoven. These were introduced with effect from the timetable that started in December and, after extensive test phases, can in principle reach 200 kilometers per hour. In principle. Because these new ICs must also adhere to the restrictions of 120 and 80 km/h now imposed by ProRail on the track section with the bad viaducts.

4 Bad news about the railway again. What causes that?

The railway in the Netherlands squeaks and creaks. Overdue maintenance of the track, viaducts and railway embankments affects all route sections in the country. Last November, ProRail warned that a large number of railway embankments in the country are qualitatively depreciated and can no longer cope with heavier or more frequent rail use.

At the same time, maintenance is being carried out on a large scale. From Meppel and Zwolle to Schiphol, Rotterdam and Amsterdam Central Station. As a result, trains ran with more delays on many routes last year than in previous years. There were also fewer trains than contractually agreed with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.

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This year will not get any better, the NS already warned: even more delays and train cancellations, especially if ProRail is unable to have maintenance work carried out more often during the day during the week. And then there is the risk of unexpected setbacks during maintenance, such as now on the HSL line.

The overdue maintenance of railway embankments and viaducts fits into a broader picture of the infrastructure in the Netherlands. Rijkswaterstaat also has to shut down viaducts or highways or only allow cars in a limited amount. Earlier this week, Rijkswaterstaat announced that the tender for maintenance of the Van Brienenoord Bridge near Rotterdam, one of the busiest bridges in the Netherlands, would be temporarily halted because there was only one candidate for the work and the price was excessively high.

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The Van Brienenoord Bridge will not be renovated for the time being. Hardly any company dares to take on large projects like these anymore

5 And when will the trains run fast again on the HSL track?

That is unknown. To drive at 300 kilometers per hour on the Hoofddorp-Groene Harttunnel section – which the trains to Paris and London can in principle do – ProRail said last year that “extremely drastic repair work” is required. But reaching 160 kilometers per hour on that part will probably take a while. “We immediately started further analysis and the search for possible measures that can be taken to increase the speed again, but for now we cannot provide a forecast for how long this will take.”

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