These are: the four future sketches for Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and the Noordoostpolder, when they are soon located on the Lely line.
“What kind of future do we want?” Lelylijn director Stijn Lechner raised this question on Tuesday, during the presentation of four future sketches of the North, should a Lelylijn be constructed.
The four sketches are fodder for the provinces, water boards and municipalities involved. How do they see the future of Groningen, Drenthe, Friesland and the Noordoostpolder?
They will be allowed to pee in the coming months, but the project organization that is investigating the feasibility of the Lely Line wants to present the future prospects before the summer.
These are the four scenarios outlined. “We are not looking for a winner, but a mix that works,” said Lechner about the future visions presented.
1. Each place on the Lely line has its own station
If we want to live in a ‘thirty-minute landscape’, as the designers call it, then every place on or near the Lely Line will grow. More homes, more companies, more activity – spread across all centres.
New connections are being made with new stations in Leek, Drachten, Heerenveen-Noord, Joure, Lemmer and Emmeloord, with the intention that ‘people will find everything they need within 30 minutes’, according to the illustrators.
The Lelylijn connects Assen and Leek by rail, just like Drachten with Franeker and Grou. This results in new travelers who leave their car at home.
With a possible new hospital in Joure, the station will soon be next door. Thousands of new houses will be built around the new stations.
2. The Lely line adapts to nature
Whether the Lely Line is built or not, the biggest challenge in the North will be ‘coexistence’ with the climate, the soil and the water, the researchers write. In a picture of the future, the Lely Line adapts to nature and the landscape.
In this scenario, “we have to be selective,” the writers said. There will be an ‘imbalance’ between home and work. Not every residential area will benefit immediately and the Lely line will skip a station. Villages are becoming greener, the car will make way for other forms of public transport – to help the climate.
“In this scenario you have to ask yourself whether it is wise to build houses on lower ground, with all the climate challenges we know,” Lelylijn director Stijn Lechner said at the presentation on Tuesday in Drachten. “And therefore also a station.”
The area near Lemmer en Joure and the nature near Beetsterzwaag are particularly sensitive. To protect nature, trains will run slower and will have to be ‘integrated with care’ into cultural landscapes and historic lines. There may be tunnels or relocation of other infrastructure.
3. The North as one large cooperating region
Groningen with its UMCG and RUG, Leeuwarden with the Water Campus and Dairy Campus, Emmeloord with innovative agriculture and Heerenveen with dairy, logistics and sports – in the third dilemma of the Lelylijn club, the North becomes a collaborative region. No competition among themselves, but all ‘innovative breeding grounds’, where young people want to live, study and work.
In this scenario, Heerenveen, Drachten and Emmeloord will be asked the ‘identity question’: do they want to become ‘more of a city’? With more houses, more educational institutions, more companies – or are they taking a step back?
The Lelylijn will mainly connect the large centers and large new residential areas, such as the Suikerzijde near Groningen and Werpsterhoeke near Leeuwarden, with the ‘main stations’.
In this sketch, the Lely line skips Lemmer and Joure and the track south of Heerenveen will be connected to the existing track and above the sports city will have a branch to Drachten and Groningen. The villages such as Leek and Lemmer will benefit differently from the Lely line than if they were to have a station on the track.
4. Groningen in the list of Amsterdam and Hamburg
And what if you don’t let the Lely line from Amsterdam stop in Groningen? Then nothing beats Groningen and the city will be promoted as an ‘international top region’, the report states. Groningen will ‘profile itself in an international context’, with perhaps room for a Groningen ‘South Axis’ and new ‘top facilities’.
Because the railway will be extended to Hamburg, Germany, Groningen will be directly connected to the capitals of Amsterdam, Berlin and Copenhagen.
Leeuwarden, also an end station of the Lely line, will benefit in its wake. In this scenario, stations such as Leek and Joure will disappear and Emmeloord and Drachten will have a station, but the train will stop there less often. That also makes the cities less attractive than in the other scenarios.
Because migration to the city is expected to increase, facilities in villages may disappear and move to new places, such as near public transport stations that will be installed, such as P+R Hoogkerk. Most new homes will be in the big cities, but growth will level off in smaller towns.