Betuweroute  The Betuweroute is a double track freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany. Betuweroute is the official name, after the Betuwe area through which it passes, but the line is popularly referred to as Betuwelijn, after an older track in the same region. The Germans have named their part the Hollandstrecke. Together they form Project nr. 5 of Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). Preliminary investigations into the future of west-east transport began in 1985 by the Van Bonde Commission. The main advocate of the line was the then minister Neelie Kroes, later Commissioner in the European Union until 2014. In 1992 the German and Dutch governments signed the Treaty of Warnemünde, a treaty on enhancing rail traffic, especially on the tracks from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to Duisburg. The original plans foresaw three branches towards Germany. However, the northern branch via Oldenzaal was abandoned in 1999 and the southernmost track via Venlo saw the axe in 2004. In the same year, the courts forbade the construction of a large logistics centre near Valburg. Work on the Dutch part of the track began in 1998 by the NS. Delayed by two years, the railway was finished mid-2007, at a cost of 4.7 billion euro, more than twice the original budget of 2.3 billion euro, and more than quadruple the initial 1.1 billion euro estimate from 1990. Private financing for the line, promoted by the government in a bid to offset the large and rising costs and to stifle criticism about government funding, never materialised. On 16 June 2007, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands presided over the opening ceremony for the section connecting Rotterdam to the German border. Ignoring the TEN-T and bilateral agreements, the Germans will not complete reconstruction of their section before 2015. Project management hopes within five years to reach a daily average of 150 freight trains. Due to problems with safety equipment, and the unfinished German connection, traffic was still slight as of December 2007. However, it increased steeply over the years 2008-2011. By mid-2011, 78% of all freight trains between Rotterdam and the German border took the Betuweroute (the rest travelled via Venlo, via the conventional railway via Arnhem to Emmerich am Rhein, or via the border at Bad Bentheim.) From 2009, 6,000 tonne trains, the heaviest in Germany and the Netherlands, transport iron ore between Rotterdam port and Dillingen in Germany using the Betuweroute.