ProRail

In the Netherlands ProRail (written in camel case) is a government task organisation that takes care of maintenance and extensions of the national railway network infrastructure (not the metro or tram), of allocating rail capacity, and of traffic control.

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)

See Network statement 2003 (pdf-file, 646 kB) (http://www.prorail.nl/NR/rdonlyres/C4365F79-76D6-45D6-9374-9328FA634AF9/0/network_statement2003.pdf)

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

the main one Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) (http://www.ns.nl (http://www.ns.nl)), the smaller ones NoordNed, Syntus and Connexxion, and one that mainly operates in Germany, DB Regionalbahn Westfalen,

as well as cargo operators, notably Railion.

The fee that the public transport operators have to pay for this is lower than the cost, but increasing. In 2003 it is 0.64 euro per train km and 0.54 to 2.16 euro for stopping at a station.

See also Transportation in the Netherlands.