The ‘Betuwe Line’, the new cargo railway line from the harbour of Rotterdam to Germany, is opened by the Queen Beatrix on the 16th of June 2007. Different transporters have requested to use the new track.
Around ten years ago the Dutch government decided to build the railway line to bring back the huge amount of trucks driving from Rotterdam into Europe and to unburden the towns that are located near to the old cargo train lines. It is the question if the formula will work, and if the public will accept the extremely high costs of 4,7 billion euro for the reduction of pollution.
In 1992 the total costs for the cargo line were estimated at 2,3 billion, which makes the project 2.1 billion euro more expensive than anticipated. Specialists doubt if the line will ever be profitable and activists chain themselves to the just opened cargo line, mourning over the loss of nature.
Since also the Swiss minister of Traffic is present at the opening of the cargo line, the Europe correspondent Christoph Nufer from the Swiss public TV channel Schweizer Fernsehen travels to the Netherlands to cover the event for the news program Tagesschau.
For this news reportage Featurez did the research set-up and planning of the filming, booked a camera crew, organised an SNG van and feed and pool- and news video footage.