Pawel, thank you.
Not just for your words, but for making this working group happen.
You framed the challenge well.
‘Ageing infrastructure.
Rising demand.
The urgent need to move beyond diagnosis and towards action.’
I could not agree more.
So, let me show you what action looks like. In practice. In the Netherlands.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me start with a bridge.
Not a metaphor, but a real bridge.
The Van Brienenoordbrug in Rotterdam.
It carries over 250.000 vehicles a day.
It connects the port of Rotterdam to the rest of Europe.
And it needs to be replaced. Completely!
We are doing it. That is the good news.
But here is the honest news: replacing that one bridge will consume such a large share of our infrastructure budget that we are forced to make hard choices everywhere else on our network.
One bridge. Billions of euros. Difficult decisions across an entire country.
Welcome to the challenge we all share.
I am not here to pretend we have all the answers.
I am here because we are better at finding them together.
That is what this working group is about.
That is what TEN-T is about.
That is what the North Sea Rhine Mediterranean Corridor is about.
Road. Rail. Inland waterways.
Three modes. One challenge.
One corridor across eight countries.
Let me be open about where we stand in the Netherlands.
Our infrastructure is ageing.
Many of our key structures – bridges, tunnels, locks – were built between the 1950s and 1980s.
Pawel mentioned that and it is true across the corridor.
But let me give you the Dutch numbers, to put it in perspective.
59% of the bridges on our main road network have less than one third of their expected lifespan remaining.
Think about that.
More than half our bridges – closer to the end than to the beginning!
For our railways: ProRail faces a renewal and maintenance backlog of around 20 billion euros. Not over decades, but over the coming years.
On our inland waterways, locks, weirs and pumping stations are in a similar condition: many beyond their designed lifespan, kept going through careful management and increasingly frequent inspections.
Dear friends,
I am not sharing this to alarm you.
I am sharing this because I suspect it sounds familiar.
This is not a typical Dutch problem.
It is a European problem.
The NSRM Corridor runs through some of the most intensively used infrastructure on the continent.
Infrastructure that keeps economies moving.
Infrastructure that cannot simply be switched off for renewal.
And that brings me to what I believe is the most underrated challenge we face. Not just the money.
Not just the ageing assets.
But the question of how we keep things running while we fix them.
Re-routing, coordination and minimizing disruption across borders.
Let me give you a concrete example.
Recently, DBInfraGo started a major track renewal on the Emmerich-Oberhausen line – including a third track.
Eighty weeks were needed.
They had direct consequences for the Netherlands and for Belgium.
Freight from the port of Rotterdam had to be rerouted via Eindhoven and Venlo. We increased capacity on that line from two to four freight trains per hour.
But that meant postponing track renewals in Brabant.
The port of Antwerp also depended on the same rerouting options.
DBInfraGo, ProRail and Infrabel coordinated closely.
And it worked.
It required months of preparation, difficult trade-offs, and a level of cross-border trust that does not come automatically, but it worked!
The lesson learned is clear.
We need minimum guaranteed rerouting capacities on the NSRM Corridor.
Not as a nice-to-have, but as a structural commitment between infrastructure managers.
Because without them, the logistics of Europe's major ports – and the industries and consumers they serve – are at serious risk.
The same logic applies to inland waterways.
When we renovated the Prinses Marijkesluis on the Amsterdam-Rijn Canal – a TEN-T waterway on this very corridor – it caused disruption.
For shippers. For local communities.
But we planned carefully, we communicated early, and we delivered.
On time. Within budget. With manageable impact.
That is the standard we should set for each other.
My Dutch colleagues sometimes raise an eyebrow when I say it.
But I will say it here too: we need to make renewal and maintenance sexy again!
Valued. Prioritized. And funded.
Because the most important infrastructure work is often the work nobody sees.
The inspections at 3am.
The lock gate replaced before it fails.
The bridge renewed before it closes permanently.
So, what do I want from this working group?
Three things.
First, let us build a shared picture on the challenges we see to future proof our corridor.
Think about system performance, traffic management, labour shortages.
Not country by country. But together.
Second, let us share what works.
Multi-annual contracting. Asset management. Smart renewal and maintenance technologies. Workforce strategies.
We are all grappling with the same problems.
We do not need to solve them alone.
And third, let us leave here with a plan to keep this going.
Not just good intentions, but a concrete next step.
Because the challenges are too big, and the corridor is too important.
What we are building in this room is more than a working group. It is a community that knows how to help each other.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Van Brienenoordbrug will be replaced.
It will take years. It will cost billions.
And when it is done, traffic will flow again, freight will move again, and the corridor will be stronger.
Pawel said we need to move beyond diagnosis and towards action.
This is the action.
Here. Today. In this room.
Let's get to work.
Thank you.