Breaking up the national rail network into separate chunks and putting services out to tender will reduce delays, according to research by network operator ProRail quoted in Thursday’s Volkskrant.

This is because services will not be so interdependent, reducing the domino effect of delays, ProRail is quoting as saying.
Earlier, researchers at Erasmus University in Rotterdam calculated dividing up the railway network into smaller franchises would save the government €210m. That research was carried out at the request of private rail operators, the paper says.
Private rail firms such as Arriva and Connexxion are angry that the state-owned NS was given a 10 year operating licence in 2005. They currently offer rail services on the network fringes only but are lobbying hard to have the system changed.
Transport minister Melanie Schultz has pledged to publish her proposals for the post 2015 railway system ‘after the summer’.