Netherlands earmarks €1.9bn for ERTMS in €18bn infrastructure plan

The Netherlands will spend about €1.9bn on rolling out ERTMS over the next eight years, as part of an extra €18bn the Dutch cabinet has set aside for maintaining and renewing the country's infrastructure. Infrastructure Minister Vincent Karremans and State Secretary Annet Bertram announced the package on 16 October 2026, saying the rollout of the European train control system will be stepped up so that rail users can rely on it after 2040.

The €18bn covers roads, bridges, waterways and rail, and is meant to give budget certainty for the next eight years. According to the table in the minister's letter to parliament, as reported by Railway Gazette International, rail receives €1,879m for ERTMS (the first tranche and national deployment), €2,018m to bring maintenance up to the network's basic quality level and €1,622m to repair and renew viaducts on HSL-Zuid, the high speed line used by around 275 international trains a day. Bertram said the package would allow real progress, with considerably more money for maintaining and renewing the railway.

Several rail projects go ahead, including preparation of the Nedersaksenlijn and upgrades of the Meppel and Eindhoven rail hubs. Others are on hold. The government has paused its annual contributions to the Lelylijn, the proposed line to the north of the country, and ordered a new study, with an advisory committee due to report in mid-2027. The expansion of RandstadRail between Den Haag and Rotterdam has been pushed back.

Infrastructure manager ProRail welcomed the decision. Chief executive Mirjam van Velthuizen said the money addresses the urgent task of maintaining and renewing the network, but warned that funding after 2034 still needs attention because, as she told Railway Gazette, "we must make plans today and prepare for projects that we want to execute in eight to 10 years." ProRail is also due to take over direct management of HSL-Zuid in 2031, when the Infraspeed concession ends.

Our analysis

The amount for ERTMS matters less than the certainty it brings. A national rollout of ETCS is a programme of more than a decade, in which trackside equipment, train fitment and driver training must advance together; a stop-start budget is what usually makes such programmes slip and cost more. Securing the first tranche and the national deployment in the same envelope gives ProRail, operators and suppliers a planning horizon. The test will be the train side: the Netherlands can only retire its national ATB system once every train using a line is ETCS-equipped, and fleet fitment is where many European rollouts have lost years. The next milestone to watch is the budget processing in the spring memorandum, which will turn these choices into law.

Sources: Government of the Netherlands (16/10/2026); Letter to parliament, Prioritering en perspectief Mobiliteits- en Deltafonds (16/10/2026); Railway Gazette International (21/10/2026); Treinreiziger.nl (19/10/2026).

Photo: a Eurostar train on HSL-Zuid near Puttershoek, 2019. Rob Dammers, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Written with AI assistance from the sources cited, reviewed by the TrainsNews editorial team. Real photo, credited below the image. Spotted an error? contact@trainsnews.com — Our AI policy