If the Lely line is built, the railway line should improve broad prosperity in the Netherlands. This means that not only the effects on the economy and housing construction must be considered, but also those on the social and cultural fields and on the living environment.
This is what the Lelylijn project organization wants, which coordinates research into the fast rail connection between the north and the Randstad.
In addition to activity, better accessibility and housing, nature, landscape, tranquility, space, water and soil are also important. The project organization in which the authorities, ProRail, Rijkswaterstaat and the water boards work together has developed four lines of thought with different goals and effects for the Lelylijn.
Project director Stijn Lechner: “These are lines of thought that municipalities, provinces and the central government must work on in order to be able to make definitive choices.” The project team is trying to look ahead to 2050.
In the lines of thought, possible developments in the region are linked to the transport offer of the Lely line. This way, according to Lechner, you can make choices about what you want or don’t want. For example, it concerns a local or an urban network. And do you want to spread or concentrate companies?
In the first school of thought, the so-called ‘thirty-minute community’, local trains run on the Lely line with several stations. “In this variant you should be able to get everywhere in 30 minutes,” says Lechner, “but the economy and housing construction have been adapted to that: its own economy for each residential area.”
Climate, soil and water are central to ‘vital ecoland’. Lechner: “Urbanization and new construction must take place ‘high and dry’. This requires good connections to public transport junctions. The Lely line then has a regional connecting role with both intercity trains and local trains.”
This line of thinking is mainly about preserving peace, space and recreation. Living is concentrated around public transport hubs.
In the ‘urban network’ school of thought, there is much greater growth in living and working in the larger centres. The Lely line mainly connects these. Heerenveen and Drachten need to grow.
Finally, in the ‘international top region’ school of thought, (economic) development is mainly focused on the largest cities. Groningen needs to get bigger, just like Leeuwarden. There are mainly economic links with Amsterdam, Bremen and Hamburg. So then the Lely line has to continue to Germany. According to the project team, this includes a very fast Lely line with only intercity trains that drive as fast as possible.
In fact, everyone believes that a train journey on the Lely line should be as short as possible. Nature should also not be affected by the railway line and the fast train connection between Groningen and the Randstad should also provide jobs and a better economy in the North. This emerged from a citizen consultation on the Lely Line in May 2023.
All schools of thought show that the Lely Line provides additional homes and employment. But the numbers differ. Depending on the way of thinking, the Lely Line could build 14,000 to 74,000 additional homes and create 3,000 to 63,000 additional jobs. The vast majority of this growth would end up in the larger centres. Whether these additional numbers are appropriate and feasible is still being investigated further.
Without the Lely Line, approximately 66,000 homes will be built in the municipalities along the railway line until 2050 and approximately 62,000 jobs will be created.
The project team’s first research, which was completed this year, should clarify what Lelylijn can do for the development of housing, the labor market, nature and landscape. The team’s research is based on the bundling of the new railway line with highways: A6, A7 and A32. This does not mean that the other variants through Drenthe along Assen and through North Holland over the Afsluitdijk are out of the picture, according to Lechner.
Lechner: “We have always focused on the well-known route via Almere-Lelystad-Heerenveen-Drachten. As a result, we may overlook opportunities with other variants. We hope to show the possibilities and impossibilities of all routes in May.”
The general assumption in political and economic Drenthe is that only the north of Drenthe benefits from the Lely line. According to Lechener, a larger part of the province will be able to benefit if housing construction and economic growth around the Lely line are chosen.
“We also see it in combination with the construction of the Lower Saxony line and solving the bottleneck on the railway in Meppel. But without the Lely line and the Lower Saxony line you still have no alternative routes.”
The lines of thought have now been published so that representatives and administrators can discuss them and debate with each other. The Lelylijn project team will include the results in the next research phase.
Once politicians have made choices, the project team wants to move forward with a definitive perspective: what developments can the train bring about? “Then we can ultimately determine whether construction makes sense or not,” says Lechner.