Tram to IJsselstein and Nieuwegein will not run for the next four months: last work for the time being

No express tram to Nieuwegein and IJsselstein for four months; link with Uithoflijn follows

It is the final of a difficult match. With rising costs, equipment delayed by corona and blundering with the permit application, you can safely call the renewal of the so-called SUNIJ line that. “We have had some growing pains; the project is a major challenge,” said Ron van Dopperen, spokesperson for the province of Utrecht, who is responsible for the tram line.

Despite the previous setbacks, the end of the mega project seems to be in sight. At the Jaarbeursplein, the finishing touches are being made to ensure that linked trams of 75 meters long, which can fit 500 passengers, will soon be able to stop. The biggest job is waiting in Nieuwegein, where a completely new stop will be built in the city center and the tram track will be relocated.

This must be done to make the line suitable for the extra long and low trams. “400 meters of track for the new tram track has just been delivered,” says Van Dopperen next to the piles of rails. “The men are busy preparing everything to actually place the track.”

The work will take four months: two months to build, two months to test. After that, the SUNIJ line and the Uithof line will be linked together. From the summer timetable in July you can travel to the Uithof without a change at Utrecht Central Station. Incidentally, it is also possible to get off at the center side of that station, just like in the past.

While travelers are bummed about the tram that will not be running in the coming months, some local residents are actually happy with it. They have been complaining about noise nuisance ever since the new tram started running. “If the tram is not running, we can sit in the garden,” says Frans Kofflard. He lives in the De Bruijnstraat in Nieuwegein.

Beep express tram IJsselstein seems to be solved; now noise in Nieuwegein

260 times a day a tram “rumbles” past his backyard at a speed of about 70 kilometers per hour. That means “way too much noise” every four minutes, according to Kofflard and his neighbors. Kofflard: “It’s a thunderous sound of metal on metal. Booming and drumming, that’s what we experience.”

Kofflard, together with his neighbors, is making an appeal to the municipality and the province of Utrecht: use the coming period to find measures. “Slow down the tram a bit,” Kofflard suggests. According to him, the “breathing pause” can be used to find out what it means for the timetable if the tram were, for example, 30 kilometers per hour on certain stretches.

Another solution that residents are considering is a noise barrier. “Of 2.5 meters high. Surely that must be achievable? It depends on the political will and courage whether that idea is worked out. Whether people are serious about improving the well-being of the residents.” Via Kofflard, the residents say that they mainly hope for perspective.

In IJsselstein, the curving noise drove local residents crazy for months. That is the squeaking sound that sounds when a tram goes around the bend. There are now twelve lubrication installations along the track. This has largely resolved this problem. “But we’re not there yet,” says van Dopperen. “We are still setting up the devices.” A trial with silencers on the wheels of the tram is still ongoing.

What the noise of the tram will be after the work is still uncertain. The trams will then run ‘coupled’, with double devices. Van Dopperen: “That produces a different sound. Longer trams then run. So we will have to look again at what that means for the noise.”