The European Commission approved, on Tuesday 5 November, over €22.2 million of public support to upgrade traffic management equipment on freight locomotives in the Netherlands.
The Commission reached the following conclusions: - the Dutch scheme is beneficial for the environment and for mobility; - the measure is proportionate and necessary to achieve the intended objectives, i.e. the promotion of interoperability of railway systems in the EU and supports the shift of freight transport from road to rail; - the Dutch public funding has an 'incentive effect', as railway vehicle owners would not perform the necessary upgrade of the ERTMS equipment of their freight locomotives absent the public support.
In October 2019, the Netherlands notified the Commission of their plans to support the upgrade of 99 cross-border freight locomotives with the newest European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) on-board equipment.
Public support will take the form of direct grants to the owners of the locomotives, to be used for the prototyping and serial upgrades of the equipment. The public support by the Dutch state will be complemented by grants for a total of €23.8 million financed through the Connecting Europe Facility. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)