UTRECHT, 22 January 2009 – Strukton Rail has acquired a five-year maintenance contract in the South of the Netherlands. Strukton Rail and ProRail signed the contract on 21 January 2009.

The contract covers the daily maintenance of the railways in the De Peel region. This region in the surroundings of Venlo and Eindhoven has approximately 300 km of track and 300 switches. The contract in the Venlo area takes effect as of 1 June 2009; the contract in the Eindhoven area takes effect as of 1 January 2010. Strukton Rail is currently setting up the maintenance organisation, implementing various systems and making other preparations.

De Peel is the second Performance Oriented Maintenance Contract for daily maintenance and function repair that ProRail has brought on the market. More than the contracts in the past, these Performance Oriented contracts aim at quality and documentability. The contract gives Strukton Rail more freedom to determine its working method and periods, provided that Strukton guarantees the availability of the railways for transport companies and fulfils the requirements in the field of safety and sustainability.

A performance-oriented contract fits well within the Strukton Rail’s maintenance philosophy, which aims at safety, life cycle management and optimal availability. Strukton Rail has invested considerably in the development of innovations that help prevent failures and improve availability. Examples are the POSS monitoring system, the video inspection train and other measuring and inspection trains. Strukton Rail will be able to use these systems in an optimal way in the De Peel region.