History of rail transport in the Netherlands

The history of rail transport in the Netherlands is generally considered to have begun on September 20, 1839, when the first train, drawn by De Arend, successfully made the 16 km (9.9 mi) trip from Amsterdam to Haarlem. However, the first plan for a railroad in the Netherlands was launched only shortly after the first railroad opened in Britain.

When discussing the history of rail transport in the Netherlands, one can roughly distinguish six eras, namely the period up to 1839, when the first plans were made for a railroad; the period 1840–1860, when the railroads experienced their early expansion; the period 1860–1890, when the government started to order the construction of new lines; the period 1890–1938, when the railroads were consolidated into two large railroads; the period 1938–1992, when the Nederlandse Spoorwegen was granted a monopoly on rail transport; and finally the period from 1992 to the present, when the Nederlandse Spoorwegen lost its monopoly.

The first line 1839

A false start

An ambitious army officer, W. A. Bake, launched the first plan to build a railroad in the Netherlands shortly after

An employee of Bake, W. C. Brade, continued his plans, although he changed the route to run from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, with the original stretch running to Haarlem to test its economic viability. This change in route may have been partly influenced by wealthy investors who were eager for a direct train connection between either of the great Dutch ports (Amsterdam and Rotterdam). King William I^[2] was reluctant to have the Netherlands at a competitive disadvantage to the neighbouring countries who were all building railroads. He might also have felt threatened by the plans for the Iron Rhine.^[3]

Building the line

With the blessing of the king, construction of the railroad could commence. However, there was one major obstacle, a lack of qualified railroad construction

When the line was finally completed, and the locomotives delivered, the line could be opened. On September 20, 1839, a train pulled by the locomotives De Arend (and De Snelheid as a backup) left Amsterdam, arriving in a (then) recordbreaking 30 minutes later in Haarlem. Commercial transport started four days later.^[4]

Early expansion 1840–1860

After the first stretch of railroad proved to be successful, the railroads started to expand slowly.

Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij

After the first stretch between Amsterdam and Haarlem proved viable, the company decided to complete the line to Rotterdam. Some people, especially the wealthy landowners, weren't too fond of the railway crossing their land, while other people were interested in the economic potential of the railway. This led to a rather famous incident when Aernout Hendrik van Wickevoort Crommelin, the owner of a small parcel of land in Delft which lay directly in the path of the railway, only wanted to sell his land in exchange for a train station at a place favorable to him. The HSM first tried to use legal means to buy the land, but when that took too long, they simply built the railway with a sharp curve around the land. Van Wickevoort, seeing that his plan had failed, then donated the land to the railway. This small change in the route had only been operational for five days, but cost the railroad more than they would have spent fulfilling Van Wickevoorts' demands.^[5] This incident is referred to as 'Het laantje van Van der Gaag'.

Without further major incidents, the line was completed in 1847 when it reached Rotterdam (the

A few other minor railway companies started operation in this period, such as the Aachen-Maastricht Spoorweg Maatschappij (AM) which built a railway from Aachen to Maastricht (1853) and from Maastricht to Hasselt (1856), completing a connection between Antwerp and Cologne. In 1854 and 1855 the Société Anonyme des chemins de fer d'Anvers à Rotterdam (AR) built a railway from Antwerp to Moerdijk and a branchline from Roosendaal to Breda. From Moerdijk the voyage to Rotterdam was completed by steamferries. By 1860, only 325 km (202 mi) of railway had been constructed,^[7] but the real boom in railway construction was about to start.

Construction boom 1860–1890

As in most other countries, the government chose to leave the construction and operation of the railways to private companies. This led to a concentration of the lines in the densely populated North and South Holland Provinces, the Province of Utrecht and to a lesser extent Gelderland, which lies on the route between Holland and Germany. Citizens from various towns and cities not served by the railways feared that their respective city would be put at a disadvantage compared to cities which were connected to the network, so they then started lobbying the government to expand the growing network to include as yet unconnected towns.^[8] Others founded their own railroads (Lokaalspoorweg).

Government intervention

In 1860 the spoorwegwet was approved in which the government stated its intention to build a large rail network. Previously, the government had subsidized certain lines, but never done anything of this scale. The network was designed for efficiency, which meant that as many cities as possible had to be connected with the least amount of track.^[8] Another aspect of this efficiency was that, save for a few major stations, all stations along the line were built to a standardised design based on the expected volume of travellers.

The map on the right shows the lines constructed by the government in gold.

Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen

To service the new lines built by the government, a new

While the government took on the job to build the majority of the lines, the private railway companies continued to build their own new lines. For example, the HSM built a line connecting Amsterdam to Germany to compete with the NRS on freight and passengers bound for Germany, while the NRS built a highly anticipated line between Leiden and Woerden, though it proved to be a financial failure.

New companies were also founded. The Noord-Brabantsch-Duitsche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NBDS) was founded to fill the gap in the line between Saint Petersburg, Berlin and London.

Consolidation 1890–1938

In the early 1900s, the Noord Friesche Locaalspoorweg-Maatschappij built

In 1908, the

See the article about the Nederlandse Spoorwegen until this section is completed

See also

• History of rail transport
• History of the Netherlands
• Narrow-gauge railways in the Netherlands
• Nederlandse Spoorwegen
• Rail transport by country
• Rail transport in the Netherlands
• Railway Museum (Netherlands)

References

Notes

(All notes are in Dutch)

Bibliography

• Veenendaal, Augustus J. Jr. (2001). Railways in the Netherlands: A Brief History, 1834-1994. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  ISBN 0804739471
  .

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