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Netherlands - Transportation

The Netherlands sits astride vital Lines of Communication needed for reinforcing NATO and close to the central European heartland. From this location, its forces and infrastructure played a very significant role both in the Western Alliance's strategy of deterrence and, should that fail, in Allied plans for stopping a Warsaw Pact thrust across Northern Europe to capture ports along the North Sea and English Channel. Its geographic position, giving the Dutch relatively easy access to 300 million European consumers, together with its industrious and entrepreneurial populace, also has provided The Netherlands with an excellent and expanding industrial base.

Although it is relatively small (comprising only some 15,000 square miles with the maximum distance from north to south about 230 miles and about 120 miles from the coast to the German border), and densely populated (around 14 million inhabitants), The Netherlands is imbued with important natural features that give rise to its industrial potential: two large rivers and the sea. The Rhine flows from Switzerland through the Federal Republic of Germany; the Meuse begins in France, flows through Belgium and, like the Rhine, issues into the North Sea at Rotterdam. These two vital European rivers provide Dutch ports with excellent navigable waterways for the movement of goods to and from the European hinterland. Further, the Dutch Government is actively promoting the development of the southwestern part of The Netherlands along the waterway connecting the important Belgian port of Antwerp with the sea.

To capitalize on the easy access to the sea and into Europe via the Rhine and Meuse, the Dutch have developed superb port, road, rail, and air facilities. Rotterdam, on the Rhine estuary, has been the busiest harbor in the world for some years and is accessible to the largest ships. Amsterdam has a very large and important harbor as well. Both are highly efficient, use the most modern loading and unloading equipment, and have modern container terminals with large storage facilities. In fact, Amsterdam and Rotterdam together handle more cargo than the combined tonnage of the ports of Le Havre, Antwerp, London, and Hamburg and about 1300 percent more than New York. There are other Dutch harbors and ports, such as Terneuzen and Flushing in the south and Delfzijl in the north, that are fully equipped to load and unload large seagoing vessels.

In addition, the many rivers and canals of The Netherlands provide ideal transportation routes, particularly for transit traffic to and from other countries in Europe. An extensive river fleet serves as a vital link in the transportation chain between the seaports and the rest of the continent.

The country has an extensive, modern, and intensively used network of roads and motorways, which at many points connect to the German autobahns. This means that the industrial cities and towns of Western Germany are within a day's drive from any location in The Netherlands, and Paris can be reached in less than a day by car. In addition, a highly up-to-date electrified railway system, equipped with the latest rolling stock, provides fast and regular service to all places of any importance in The Netherlands. The short distances make it possible to make a round-trip, either by car or train, from any town in The Netherlands to any other in one day. The main function of the domestic air network is to ferry passengers from a number of points to one of Europe's most modern airports, Schiphol, near Amsterdam. Many international airlines make intermediate landings at Schiphol and there is a high frequency of flights to foreign countries. Schiphol and the local Dutch airports also offer their facilities to smaller business and private aircraft.