The government is wondering whether it would be advisable to create a high-speed rail link between the Randstad en and the North of The Netherlands that would be known as the Zuiderzee line. The government's objectives with such a connection would be the following: (i) to reinforce regional-economic structures in the North of The Netherlands but also in the areas situated in between; (ii) to improve accessibility to the North of The Netherlands; (iii) to improve the way in which the Dutch employment market works; (iv) to diminish congestion in the Randstad notably on the Schiphol-Almere route. The task of the Zuiderzee line project group was to conduct a series of studies. The studies were then integrated into a Costs and Benefits Analysis. In this article the authors examine the effects that such a high-speed link would have on CO2, NOx and SO2 emissions and upon noise hindrance. Brief attention is given to the results of the Costs and Benefits Analysis. The article is a summary of a longer study that was conducted by Van den Brink et al., 2001. (A)
Abstract