Infraspeed

Infraspeed is the builder and infrastructure maintenance company of the HSL-Zuid high-speed rail line in the Netherlands.

The company was created in 1999 with the express purpose of pursuing the construction and maintenance of the then-proposed HSL-Zuid. On 11 May 2001, Infraspeed was awarded several public-private partnership (PPP) contracts by the Dutch government; it was the biggest PPP initiative for the construction of a high-speed line in Europe at that time. In addition to financing, designing and constructing the line over a five year period, from 2001 to 2006, Infraspeed was also contract to provide maintenance of HSL-Zuid over a 25 year period, from 2006 to 2031. On 28 July 2006, the southern section of HSL-Zuid was formally delivered by Infraspeed. On 21 December 2006, the consortium handed over the northern section of the line to the customer, officially ending the construction phase as per schedule.

History

Infraspeed BV was established during 1999 by a consortium of Fluor Infrastructure (a division of Fluor Corporation), Siemens Nederland (a partly-owned subsidiary of Siemens) and Royal BAM Group. One year later, the financial investors Innisfree and Charterhouse Project Equity (renamed HSBC infrastructure Ltd in 2002 after becoming a subsidiary of HSBC) acquired a 49% shareholding in Infraspeed and playing an active role in its operations.Sources:
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* , First presentation
* , Second presentationInfraspeed company website, ''www.infraspeed.nl'', March 2012.

Infraspeed was founded with the goal of securing a major contract from the Dutch government to construct and maintain HSL-Zuid, a then-proposed 100 km high-speed line that runs from Amsterdam to the Belgian border. At the time, the project was the biggest PPP initiative for the construction of a high-speed line in Europe as well as being the most extensive PPP contract that the Dutch government has ever been involved in. The tendering process for the concession was organised by the Dutch Ministry of Transport. Stated advantages of the PPP approach was the reduced burden on government budgets and the ideal that inclusion of the private sector would bring about efficiency gains and increased innovation in its delivery.

On 11 May 2001, Infraspeed was awarded several public-private partnership (PPP) contracts by the Dutch government covering the construction and maintenance of HSL-Zuid. Specifically, the arrangements included the financing and designing of the line, as well as its construction over a five year period, from 2001 to 2006; furthermore, Infraspeed were also contracted to provide maintenance of HSL-Zuid over a 25 year period, from 2006 to 2031. The various consortium members performed various aspects of the programme; Fluor provided project management, Royal BAM Group was responsible for constructing the track infrastructure, while Siemens Nederland provided much of the lineside equipment, such as the electrical power supply system (25 kV AC), and signalling system, including European Train Control System (ETCS) and GSM-R communication apparatus. Under the terms of the contract, the Netherlands paid €4.2 billion to cover the costs of constructing the infrastructure, while Infraspeed B.V. will receive income for its work totalling €2.5 billion to provide said infrastructure and to account for the costs of investment, maintenance, capital and depreciation; however, this income was conditional on the basis of specified availability levels of 99 percent being attained by the completed line.

Considerable planning was required in the delivery of HSL-Zuid; in excess of 100,000 documents were produced for the customer during the project implementation phase alone. RAMS

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