Signal on green for Lelylijn on European rail network

Brussels – In a final vote today, the European Parliament gave its final approval to adding the Lelylijn as a major new rail link on the European rail network. In doing so, the EU asks the Netherlands to realize the Lelylijn by 2050 at the latest. This means that the Netherlands must also reserve sufficient funds for this. Better connections with other regions ensure a healthy and secure future for residents in the Northern Netherlands. Just last week it was announced that the outgoing Cabinet in the Spring Memorandum wants to spend funds from the reservation for the Lelylijn on other rail projects.

Gedeputeerde Matthijs de Vries, deputy for the province of Fryslân and chairman of the Northern Cooperation Mobility, responds enthusiastically “This decision of the European Parliament fills in a missing link in the European connections. With the addition of the Lelylijn to the TEN-T network, the Northern Netherlands can fulfill its role as a gateway between Western and Northern Europe even better. Both the Northern Netherlands and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management have campaigned for the inclusion of the Lelylijn on the European rail map.”

Opt for additional investment in rail network Northern Netherlands

During the formation the decision in principle on the Lelylijn and Lower Saxony line will have to be settled. De Vries: “Giving away” the indexation on the financial reservation for the Lelylijn, as proposed by the outgoing cabinet in the Spring Memorandum, shows a lack of long-term vision and is at odds with decision-making in Europe. The approach to Zwolle-Meppel is very relevant and deserves financing, but to use the reservation for the Lelylijn for this is inappropriate and does not do justice to the major task of overdue investments in the rail network in the Northern Netherlands.”

European Commission sees opportunities northern high-speed rail corridor

At the recent European rail days Connecting Europe Days, the European Commission was still calling for member states to continue investing in new rail and better international connections, including a corridor through the Lelylijn to Bremen, Hamburg and Scandinavia. Countries north of the Netherlands are investing heavily in new rail connections. The Northern Netherlands calls on the Cabinet to also continue to invest in new rail. With the construction of the Lower Saxony line, an improvement of the existing rail connection with, among other things, the approach to the Meppel bottleneck and the construction of the Lelylijn, regions will be better connected to each other – and the Netherlands internationally. And good public transport connections between regions, cities, villages and areas demonstrably strengthen Brede Welvaart. This ambition is in the current coalition agreement and has also been put forward by the region for the current formation under the title ‘Delta Plan for the Northern Netherlands’.

Explanation:

In December 2022, all European member states already expressed support for adding the Lelylijn to the TEN-T network, and in April 2023 the European Parliament, on the initiative of a group of Dutch, German, Danish and Swedish MEPs, also voted in favor of this. The EP also endorsed the importance of extending the Lelylijn to the HSL connection Hamburg/ Scandinavia.

An agreement was reached between the EU member states and the European Parliament in December 2023, which still had to be approved by the member states and by the European Parliament. That process, following today’s vote, is fully complete. Now that all steps in the European legislative process have been completed, the new regulation will appear in the EU Official Journal and the revised TEN-T network, with its obligations, will come into force. This means that in the coming years applications can be made for European funding for links that are on the TEN-T network. In addition to the Lelylijn, many other connections in the Northern Netherlands have been added to the network at an earlier stage. These include the rail connections Leeuwarden-Groningen and Zwolle-Emmen, the N33 and the Van Harinxmakanaal.

Photo and original message via SNN