Rijn-Gouwe: The Dutch tram-trains start their trials

摘要

After almost ten years of political haggling, local and regional leaders came to a formal agreement in mid-2002 to give Holland's first tram-train a chance. Trams over under-used railway tracks... it seems so obvious in the overcrowded western part of Europe's most densely-populated country. Years ago, technical studies showed it could be done, and traffic demand is sufficient. Plans for the Rijn-Gouwe Line were described in the May 1997 issue of this magazine, but progress has been excruciatingly slow. Trial runs started in March 2003, with a fleet of six Bombardier-built A-32 partly low-floor three-section articulated trams (fitted with a new chip in their control choppers for 1500 V dc operation). They have been running on an 18-km stretch of existing single-track railway alignment, between the cities of Gouda (famous for its cheese), and a fast-growing satellite called Alphen aan den Rijn. There are three intermediate stops, all existing NS railway stations where wooden low-floor (300 mm-high) auxiliary platforms were added to the existing train 840-mm high platforms, to accommodate tram passengers (Waddinxveen, Waddinxveen-Noord and Boskoop).