The Lower Saxony Line is not an infrastructure project, but a connection project. Not only between Germany, Twente, Drenthe and Groningen, but also to keep residents in the region and to attract people from outside. This prevents a shrinking region and promotes growth and broad prosperity in the Northeast Netherlands. With 63 million from the region to start with.
That, in a nutshell, is the message of the more than seventy pages Bidbook Lower Saxony line that administrators and entrepreneurs from the Northern and Eastern Netherlands are presenting today to the House of Representatives Committee for Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W). Motivated to the bone, they are going to The Hague after last week’s ‘disconcerting message’, when it became clear that the cabinet does not want to invest a penny in the northern railway network, including the Lower Saxony line.
“Physically, but also economically, socially and emotionally, it is a connecting project. The Lower Saxony Line is not only important for the climate and for our economy, but also for education, healthcare, the housing market and the quality of life and social structure of our society,” says the creators of it bid book, with Melle Mulder, chairman of the Nedersaksenlijn Foundation, and the Drenthe transport deputy Nelleke Vedelaar in the lead. The rail connection between Groningen, Stadskanaal, Emmen and Twente and Germany is presented as game changer for the area.
The Lower Saxony line scores favorably with 0.6 to 0.9 social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) created by the region and the national government with a view to the Delta Plan for the North, of which the Lower Saxony Line is a part. That is because the railway would bring much more prosperity.
In 2019, RTV Drenthe already asked residents of our province why they think the Lower Saxony line should be built