Diesel trains in the Netherlands
A recent news article about the start of electrification of an 88 km train route1 in the Netherlands made me realize that diesel engines are still in use here. This came as a surprise to me. Even after having lived here for over 14 years, I haven’t smelled even the faintest whiff of burnt diesel at the stations here. Perhaps because these engines only run on smaller, regional lines. That anyone should have to still put up with diesel engines in a country as progressive and rich as the Netherlands, boggles my mind.
The last time I experienced diesel fumes at a station in Europe was in Scotland in 2018. The wife and I had taken a train from Edinburgh to Glasgow and had disembarked on a platform where an engine belching burnt diesel fumes stood. That, coupled with poor airflow, had made me feel quite sick.
My childhood memory of train stations in India is the odour of burnt coal mingled with the stench of piss from the dirty public urinals. I realised what that ‘train station’ smell really was quite late in life. For the longest time, it was a pungent but not an altogether repugnant smell - for my brain had come to associate it with the excitement of traveling in trains.
Clearly, I’ve grown soft.
Anyway, coming back to the electrification project here - it was originally slated to finish in 2020 but has been mired in bureaucratic delays. To quote the article:
De provincie en het rijk ruzieden over wie wat zou betalen. Vorig jaar werd de aanbestedingsprocedure stopgezet omdat er een tekort aan materialen was.
The province and the government argued about who would pay for what. Last year, the tender procedure was stopped because there was a shortage of materials.
Apparently, it costs Arriva - the operator of trains on this line - some 20-27 million Euros each year to keep these outdated diesel engines running. So they definitely have financial incentives to get a move on. The project will cost 358 million Euros and the first electric train should run on this route towards the end of 2027.
The electrification of this stretch still leaves about 400 km of the Dutch railway network reliant on diesel engines. Worse, as of this year, there are no plans to electrify it.
Used by around 22,000 riders each day.↩︎