Anton Valk, Managing Director NedRailways, to address
“THE FUTURE OF UK RAIL CONFERENCE”
at the UK Institute of Economic Affairs

The Institute of Economic Affairs is recognised as one of the world’s leading policy think-tanks. In recent years it has hosted an annual rail conference to consider the cost effectiveness, efficiency, structures and strategy of the UK rail market.

Now in its fourth year, this event continues to grow in influence and attract prominent speakers and delegates from across the industry.
This year, Anton Valk, Managing Director of NedRailways, was invited to address the conference on “The Challenge for Future Growth”.

The Challenge for Future Growth

Opening his presentation, Anton introduced the delegates to Merseyrail, the Serco-NedRailways joint venture operating so successfully in Liverpool in partnership with the PTE, Merseytravel. He then outlined for the audience the structure of the Dutch rail industry, the geography and density of the network, and the challenges facing the system, which is one of the most intensively used rail systems in Europe.

Anton also described the “end-to-end” journey philosophy adopted by NS Dutch Railways, which is core to the company’s strategy. The aim under the philosophy is to offer an integrated, full-journey solution as an alternative to the car - the primary source of competition for passengers.

Turning to the specific challenges facing the Dutch system, Anton described a strategy for growth based on better use of the existing infrastructure rather than on the enormously expensive option of network expansion. The strategy was summarised as having four priority areas for action. These were:

• Increased passenger train frequencies
• Improved punctuality
• Faster and more reliable freight transport
• Reduced noise pollution and improved external safet

Against these priorities, NS Dutch Railways, Railion and the other train operators held discussions with the Dutch infrastructure provider, ProRail, and the Dutch Government to co-operate on the development of an innovative and long term plan for increasing capacity in the rail sector.
This plan was titled “Using and Building”, and a summary of it can be found here.

The key to delivering this plan was a genuine willingness among the parties to co-operate on the solution and give equal weight to the needs and challenges of each sector, whether it was regulatory, infrastructure or passenger focused.