ProRail

ProRail

Company type	Government agency
Industry	Rail Transport
Founded	2003
Headquarters	Utrecht , Netherlands
Products	Rail Infrastructure Management, Railway Capacity Allocation, Traffic Control
Revenue	€ 1.260 billion (2006)
Operating income	€ 31 million (2006)
Net income	€ 0 (2006)
Number of employees	2,651 (2006)
Website	http://www.prorail.nl

The headquarters of ProRail, de Inktpot, with the UFO

In the Netherlands, ProRail (Dutch pronunciation: [proːˈreːl]) 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. Prorail is a part of NS Railinfratrust, 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 (NS),
• the smaller ones Arriva, Syntus, Veolia, NS Hispeed, and Connexxion,
• one that mainly operates in Germany, DB Regionalbahn Westfalen,

as well as cargo operators, notably Railion, ERS Railways and ACTS.

And smaller FOC's like: Rail4Chem (now owned by Veolia), Veolia Cargo, Rotterdam Railfeeding, Bentheimer Eisenbahn, HGK, Portfeeders (part of ACTS), and SNCF Fret

Its Utrecht headquarters is in the former offices of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (known as De Inktpot, "The Inkwell"), the largest brick building in the Netherlands. The building currently features a "UFO" on its facade resulting from an art program in 2000.

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.

See also

• Transportation in the Netherlands.

External links

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