ProRail is a non-profit, public owned railway company responsible for railway construction, renewal and maintenance and traffic control and management of the Dutch heavy rail infrastructure (both passenger and freight rail transport on the Dutch network). The company acts as a neutral infrastructure manager and divides the (sparse) space among the train operating companies in a non-discriminatory way. Operations are performed on behalf of the Ministry of Transport, which bears ultimate responsibility for them.
The Dutch railway infrastructure is known as one of the most intensely used networks of Europe. With a network of 3,000 km and a total track length over 7,000 km it includes more than 400 stations, over 7,000 switches and almost 2500 railway crossings. The network is used daily by more than 5,000 passenger trains, carrying around 1 million passengers and by 230 freight trains carrying approx. 100,000 tons of goods.
