Apologies for posting in English but the on-line translators are not so good.
Report from the Nederlands Treinreiziger web site [July 2019].
https://www.treinreiziger.nl/grensovers ... ficienter/
"According to the coalition agreement, trains must start running again between Weert and Hamont. But it seems less and less obvious that this will happen. Not only because Knowledge Institute for Mobility Policy finds that a bus is much more effective, but also because reactivation of the railway line is likely to be considerably more expensive. Until now, State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven assumed that 35 million euros was needed to reactivate the line in the Netherlands. New research from ProRail shows that between €50 and €150 million is needed."
The article is about how much more efficient [cheaper] it is to provide cross border links by bus as opposed to restarting the rail passenger service. In the case of Weert to Hamont the distance from the junction at Weert to the Dutch/Belgian frontier is 8.7 kilometres. The line was rebuilt by Prorail in 2007 and was renewed with new rail, concrete sleepers and ballast between Weert and the junction to the Zinc works. The line is straight, single track with no major engineering structures. It also runs through open countryside, some of which is the Weerter-en Budelerbergen nature reserve.
€150 million for 8.7 km of single track!
That is €17 241 per metre!
In the UK Modern Railways magazine [August 2019, page 43] some figures were provided.
I have used the exchange rate of £1 = €1.11.
The distance from Weert Junction to the Dutch/Belgian frontier near Hamont is 8.7 kilometres.
Under British Rail new electrification came in at £150 000 / €166 500 per single track kilometre.
The Midland Main Line electrification to Corby is coming in at £500 000 / €555 000 per single track kilometre.
The Great Western electrification was costing £4 000 000 / €4 440 000 per single track kilometre before it was stopped for
massive cost overruns.
At €35 million for the Weert-Hamont scheme per single track kilometre is £3 624 313 / €4 022 988.
At €50 million per single track kilometre is £5 177 591 / €5 747 126.
At €150 million per single track kilometre is £15 532 774 / €17 241 379.
The Great Western figure includes compensation payments to train operators for the disruption and the costs of working on a live railway. The line between Weert and Hamont could be closed to allow work to progress 16 hours a day uninterrupted.
Bear in mind the Great Western scheme was over engineered to the extent that you could probably tie up a large cruise liner to one of the catenary supports. Some of the piles into the ground were going down 10 metres and more.
The article also mentions that the Germans have managed to electrify at £290 000 per single track kilometre, Sweden at £258 000 per single track kilometre and expensive Switzerland at £286 000 per single track kilometre
There is a photograph on Facebook of the Border between the Nederlands and Belgium at Hamont. It looks as if the masts are going right to the border.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... ater&ifg=1
Iain