Limburg awards Arriva £1.4 billion rail and bus contract

The Dutch province of Limburg has awarded Arriva Netherlands a 15-year rail and bus contract worth £1.4 billion.

Arriva is due to begin the 15-year contract from 11 December 2016 and will operate a fleet of 36 new trains for cross-border services to Germany and Belgium. The Limburg contract includes running a direct train service between Liege and Aachen via a hub in Eijsden. Additionally, the operator plans to launch a new ticketing system for both bus and rail.

The contract also includes Arriva operating a fleet of 226 new buses which will serve passengers in towns and cities including Maastricht, Heerlen and Roermond. Services will be integrated within the existing IC bus route and will begin new cross-border bus services to Hamont in Belgium.

Currently, Arriva operates 1,200 buses and 101 trains in the Netherlands. The Limburg awarded contract comes six months after Arriva Netherlands began a 10-year bus contract in the region of Brabant.

David Martin, Chief Executive of Arriva commented: “We are already a major transport operator in the Netherlands so we are naturally delighted to be expanding our operations further in the south of the country.

“We submitted a pioneering bid for the Limburg concession which was based around innovation, new ticketing systems for customers and new connections across the region and into Germany and Belgium. We look forward to starting in December next year and attracting more people to bus and rail services in the Netherlands.”