You will soon be able to travel to Friesland and Groningen not via Flevoland, but via Alkmaar and over the Afsluitdijk. This is being discussed by the Lelylijn project team. The yet-to-be-constructed railway line should provide a better and, above all, faster connection between the Northern Netherlands and the Randstad.
The construction of a railway line across the 30 kilometer long dam was already taken into account when the Afsluitdijk was built. For example, a piece of land was reserved for the line. He never got there. It was not profitable; the land was later used for road expansion.
But until now, maybe. The Lelylaan project team is investigating various scenarios for the railway line from the Randstad to the northern provinces. Two of them run through Flevoland. One bends at Emmeloord towards Friesland and Groningen, the other ends in Assen.
Third option
But a third option has now also been added: from Amsterdam, via Alkmaar and branching off to and over the Afsluitdijk, via Leeuwarden and ending in Groningen. Whatever option is available: the outgoing cabinet has indicated that this must continue, despite budget cuts.
If you want to travel to Leeuwarden from North Holland by public transport, it is best to use the bus, writes media partner Regional city Central. It departs from Alkmaar and also stops in Heerhugowaard, then it goes via Den Oever and the Afsluitdijk to Friesland. The bus does this quite quickly, but not as quickly as a train could.
Current route slow
The Lely line from the Randstad to the northern provinces should provide an alternative to the current route via Zwolle and Meppel. That route is slow and if there is an emergency, there are no alternatives. The route that has been most talked about in recent years runs from Lelystad via Emmeloord and Heerenveen to Leeuwarden and Groningen. But there are disadvantages to that. The costs can increase because land has to be purchased and the Amsterdam-Almere-Lelystad railway line is already quite full.
Wiped off the table
That is why the designated Lelylijn Project Team seriously looked at alternatives. Reinforcement of the existing route was not successful and a route via Enkhuizen, over a newly constructed railway bridge to Friesland, was also dismissed as unfeasible by the researchers.
But the route from Alkmaar via the Afsluitdijk to Friesland is still considered reasonably promising, as became apparent earlier this month during a discussion of the plans in the Provincial Hall of Groningen, reported Tubantia/De Stentor.
Fast connection to Germany
Whether it actually happens is another matter. In Emmeloord and Heerenveen, the focus will be on sticking to the first plan, which will also connect Drachten, which currently has no railway station, with the Lely line.
But for Alkmaarders, Heerhugowaarrs and other North Hollanders, the thought of a fast train connection with the north, and at a later stage perhaps Bremen and Hamburg, is for a while more than just a vision from the distant past of the Afsluitdijk.