Rail route of the month: rewilding, polders and Hanseatic beauty by train in the Netherlands

19.12.2023 - 11:49 / theguardian.com / Den Haag

There are train journeys where one just gazes at hills rolling by beyond the carriage window. I love such routes, be they in the Alps, Iberia or the Balkans. Things are different in the Netherlands, where pancake-flat landscapes dominate. Yet even in the flatlands there is often visual drama. The rail routes skirting Dutch heathlands around Apeldoorn are wonderful. And there is a subtle beauty, especially at low sun angles, to the secondary railways which follow the River IJssel downstream from Zutphen to Zwolle.

Zwolle makes a fine base for exploring the north-east Netherlands, all the more so if your budget extends to a night or two at the excellent Ter Borch in Zwolle (doubles from €175) right by the station. From Zwolle, one might strike north to Friesland or take the short branch line out to the pretty town of Kampen. Or explore the Netherlands’ newest mainline railway (completed in 2012), the Hanzelijn, which runs west from Zwolle through the province of Flevoland. The Hanzelijn opened in 2012 and traverses a land of far horizons, much of it below sea level. All thanks to the far-sighted ingenuity of engineer Cornelis Lely (1854-1929) and the hard work of Dutch dykers and drainers who have created an entire new province from the sea.

There are two fast trains each hour leaving Zwolle on the Hanzelijn, all running via Lelystad to Almere and then on to Schiphol airport and Den Haag. There are also two slow trains each hour that run only as far as Lelystad, which is the capital of Flevoland. The railway’s name pays homage to the region’s historic Hanseatic connections. For example, Zwolle prospered from the 13th century through the trade and commerce nurtured by the Hanseatic League.

Zwolle is a very welcoming town, the sort of place that is hard to leave. So it is a little reluctantly that I make my way to the station to catch a regional train along the Hanzelijn to Lelystad. Within minutes, our empty train is cruising across a striking red bridge over the River IJssel. The bridge captures Dutch commitment to climate-friendly travel: a double-track rail route with ample space for cyclists and pedestrians, but no provision for cars. Away to the north, the skyline of Kampen, another community that makes much of its Hanseatic history, is dominated by a great Gothic church.

The whole idea of building a railway from Zwolle across newly reclaimed polders was contentious, and the route’s planners had to rise to myriad environmental challenges. We plunge into a long tunnel under the fragile Drontermeer marshes, along the way crossing the border into Flevoland. Is it not a wondrous thing that so much of this railway crosses land that a century ago was below the waves?

There are wistfully beautiful water