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This book traces the origin, growth, decline, and resurrection of the railway system of the Netherlands from its beginnings to privatization in the 1990s, and places its history in the context of the political and socioeconomic development of the country. At first, the largely agrarian and mercantile Dutch society saw little use for such a novel system of transportation, thanks to a highly developed system of roads and waterways. However, the success of early English railways did not go unnoticed, and in 1834 a plan was developed for a railway from Amsterdam to the Prussian Ruhr area to replace the transportation system along the Rhine River. Although this initial plan was finally abandoned, other lines were opened in 1839. The technology was largely borrowed from England and Belgium, but from the outset Dutch engineers played an important role in the development of the network. Apart from a short-lived state system, the first railways were built and operated by private companies, but when this did not result in an efficient network, the state stepped in again in 1860 to bring coherence. By 1900, the national network was complete, but labor unrest escalated, leading to the national strike of 1903, which reverberated for many years in the Dutch Parliament, railroad board rooms, and socialist political parties. The exigencies of World War I increased the grip of the state on the railways, which ultimately resulted in 1938 in the complete unification of the railways, albeit under public ownership. In the 1920s and 1930s, competition from other forms of transportation resulted in a curtailing of services and the closing of unprofitable lines. World War II devastated the Dutch railway system and necessitated an almost complete rebuilding. In the postwar era, population growth, greater mobility, pollution problems, and lack of space for new highways led to an intensive use of existing railways and the construction of new lines to link new suburbs and airports with the existing network. The privatization craze of the 1990s separated the ownership of the network from its operations, but the final relationship has yet to be established.
The role of railways in urban development is the subject of this book. The central aim is to inquire into how especially the development of high-speed rail and light rail links will affect European cities. The analyses are carried out with special attention given to the broader institutional environment of the railway system, including the shift toward privatised railway companies and internationalisation.
Narrow Gauge in the Tropics is the first comprehensive history of railways and tramways in the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia) from breaking ground in 1864 to the invasion of the Japanese during World War II. During the mid-19th century under colonial rule, the Dutch East Indies experienced enormous increases in production of sugar, coffee, and other commodities, resulting in a great dilemma: How were these goods to be moved to port when wagons hauled by animals was the only available form of transportation? The solution was to build a railway network through some of the most challenging terrain on the planet. Lavishly illustrated, Narrow Gauge in the Tropics explores technical aspects of the construction of the railways over difficult terrain, the origin of the technicians who made the seemingly impossible happen, and the social impact of the railways on the indigenous population.