Freight trains on the Maas Line, connecting Roermond, Venlo and Nijmegen in the Netherlands will be given less priority on passenger trains from Arriva. This is a measure to improve performance on the troubled line. This agreement has been made between the regional rail operator and infrastructure manager ProRail.

This was reported in the daily newspaper De Limburger following an interview with deputy director Frank van Setten. ProRail acknowledged that Arriva often has to wait for delayed freight trains from Germany or for passenger trains of NS, coming from Eindhoven. In result, Arriva is suffering from regular delays.

Ride on time

In order to solve this problem, freight operators on this route have been asked to strictly adhere to the timetable, so that they no longer hinder passenger services on the Maas Line. According to Van Setten, the agreements are already in effect.

Apart from other traffic, the line has already suffered from capacity restrictions. The biggest problems on the Maas Line are caused by a delay in the electrification process of the line and the single track. However, the rail infrastructure has improved considerably this year. All cables, signals, relay boxes and the like were renewed before the summer started.