The Corona virus and the measures taken have major social and economic consequences that also hit the mobility sector hard. In the background, of course, we are working hard on the international rail file Eindhoven Düsseldorf. The State Secretary and ACM are of the opinion that a possible disruption of the level playing field should be avoided.
In a letter to the House of Representatives, State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven said that ACM concluded in the advice “Analysis of the level playing field Eindhoven-Düsseldorf ” that it cannot be ruled out that a competitive advantage will arise from the proposed revenue distribution and that this advantage could be significant.
Furthermore, ACM states that it is established that only the future HRN operator has a chance to obtain this advantage. There is a chance that this will disturb the level playing field. ACM advises for that reason, allocate the proceeds directly to the party that also pays (indirectly) for the costs, namely the government.
principle decision
The State Secretary and ACM are of the opinion that a possible disruption of the level playing field should be avoided. To rule out any appearance of an uneven playing field, Van Veldhoven therefore takes the principle decision to pass the relevant proceeds for the train service on the Dutch part of the Eindhoven-Düsseldorf line to the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment.
The German transport authority VRR, also on behalf of IenW, is finalizing preparations for the tender based on the signed cooperation agreements with the province of Noord-Brabant and the German transport authority (VRR).
The tender is scheduled to start before the summer. The Secretary of State has ProRail was commissioned to conduct research in parallel to the tendering preparations into robust and future-proof solutions for the rail capacity around Eindhoven, tested against the principles of the Public Transport Vision for the Future. The results of ProRail's research will be involved in decision-making in this autumn's BO MIRT.
