Kijfhoek classification yard is a

hump yard A classification yard (American and Canadian English (Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English (Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ya ...

type freight

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...

between

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

and

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

in the Western

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The rail yard is named after the nearby village of Kijfhoek in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of Zwijndrecht. With an area of 50

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s Kijfhoek is the largest of the few railway yards left in the country. The rail yard has a key function in connecting the rail network at the Port of Rotterdam with the rest of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Layout

Heart of the yard is the classification bowl with 42 tracks. On each side of the classification tracks are 5 departure tracks. On the west side of the hump are 14 arrival tracks. The passenger line Rotterdam-Dordrecht and the Betuweroute, a double track freight railway from the Europoort to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, run north of the yard.

Betuweroute

After the realisation of the Betuweroute in 2007, Kijfhoek gained importance in freight transport from the Europoort to Germany by rail. The arrival and departure tracks are connected to the Betuweroute through fly-overs over the passenger lines. All train movements at Kijfhoek and the Betuweroute are coordinated by the

ProRail ProRail () is a Dutch government organisation responsible for the maintenance and extension of the national railway network infrastructure (not the metro or tram), the allocation of rail capacity, and controlling rail traffic. Prorail is a part o ...

control centre at the rail yard.

References

__NOTOC__ {{coord, 51, 49, 53, N, 004, 35, 56, E, display=title, region:NL_type:landmark Rail yards in the Netherlands Drechtsteden IJsselmonde (island) Zwijndrecht, Netherlands

Layout

Betuweroute

See also

References