In the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, ProRail is a government task organisation that takes care of maintenance and extensions of the national railway network infrastructure (not the metro

Rapid transit

A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

 or tram

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

), of allocating rail capacity, and of traffic control. Prorail is a part of NS Railinfratrust

NS Railinfratrust

The Railinfratrust Company is the owner of the Dutch railtracks. ProRail B.V. is the part of RIT that takes care of maintenance and extension of the national railway network infrastructure, of allocating rail capacity, and of traffic control. NS Railinfratrust is a government agency but is not the...

 (The Dutch railway infrastructure owner).
It consists of the following inframanagement organisations:

• Railinfrabeheer (Rail Infrastructure Management, RIB)
• Railned (railway capacity allocation) (planning more than 52 hours before the day of the train service)
• Railverkeersleiding (Traffic Control) (planning from 52 hours before the day of the train service)

The rail capacity supplied by ProRail is used by several public transport operators:

• the main one Nederlandse Spoorwegen
  Nederlandse Spoorwegen
  Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands.Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national railinfrastructure, operated by ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003...
  
   (NS),
• the smaller ones Arriva
  Arriva
  Arriva plc is a multinational public transport company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Sunderland, United Kingdom. It has bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus operations in 12 countries across Europe, employs more than 47,500 people and services over 1.5 billion passenger journeys each...
  
  , Syntus
  Syntus
  Syntus bv is a public transport company operating bus and passenger train services in the east of the Netherlands. It is owned jointly by NS Reizigers and Keolis...
  
  , Veolia, NS Hispeed
  NS Hispeed
  NS Hispeed is the rail operator in the Netherlands that operates international intercity and high-speed train connections as well as national high-speed trains over the HSL-Zuid high speed line, which are branded as Fyra....
  
  , and Connexxion
  Connexxion
  Connexxion is the largest public transport bus company in the Netherlands, operating in the west, middle, east and far northern part of the country. It was formed in 1999 as result of a fusion between the public transport companies NZH, ZWN, Midnet and Oostnet. Its name is a mutation of the French...
  
  ,
• one that mainly operates in Germany
  Germany
  Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
  
  , DB Regionalbahn Westfalen,

as well as cargo operators, notably Railion

Railion

DB Schenker Rail is a European railway cargo carrier. The company was formed from the freight operating section of the Deutsche Bahn DB Cargo with the addition of various European rail freight operating companies.In December 2007 Railion became part of the DB Schenker logistics group, itself a...

, ERS Railways and ACTS

ACTS Nederland BV

Husa Transportation Group is a group of railfreight, logistics and rail services companies founded in 1998, the groups main business arm on foundation was ACTS Nederland BV , founded 1989, an open access freight operator in the Netherlands.-History:ACTS Nederland BV was founded in 1989, and...

.

And smaller FOC's like: Rail4Chem

RAIL4CHEM

RAIL4CHEM was a German rail freight transport company, and the parent company of a number of European subsidiary rail freight transport companies including rail4chem Benelux B.V. , the rail4chem transalpin AG and Fer Polska S.A. .The business was acquired by Veolia Cargo in 2008, which was...

 (now owned by Veolia), Veolia Cargo

Veolia Cargo

Veolia Cargo was a European rail freight transportation company that operated mainly in France and Germany.On 2 September 2009 the company was acquired by Eurotunnel and SNCF the deal being finalised on 1 December 2009.-History:...

, Rotterdam Railfeeding, Bentheimer Eisenbahn, HGK, Portfeeders  (part of ACTS), and SNCF Fret

Funding

Funding for ProRail is provided by a government subsidy, and a fee paid by the railway operators (called infraheffing).
The government subsidy totaled approx. €1 billion in 2006, and the infraheffing totalled approx. €200 million in 2006, the remaining income was listed as 'other'.
The fee that the public transport operators have to pay for this is lower than the cost, but increasing. In 2003 it was € 0.64 per train km and € 0.54 to € 2.16 for stopping at a station.

External links

• Nederlandse Spoorwegen
• Network statement 2003 (pdf-file, 646 kB)
• ProRail