The opposition liberal VVD party says the government needs to spend €6.5bn on roads and €3bn on trains in the period up to 2025 to alleviate the country’s growing congestion problems.

Presenting the VVD’s traffic plans on Wednesday, party leader Mark Rutte told ANP news service: ‘We don’t expect the cabinet to fix traffic problems by tomorrow. That’s unrealistic. But we’re now almost a year past the elections and except for an increase in road taxes, we haven’t seen any action from the cabinet.’
Rutte said traffic jams cost about €700m a year while an earlier survey carried out by the VVD concluded that road congestions costs drivers about 33 working days a year.
The employers’ association, business sector and transport branch have all reacted positively to the VVD plans.