Barendrecht, South Holland, Netherlands

🇳🇱 Barendrecht is a town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, near Rotterdam, South Holland. The municipality of Barendrecht also includes Barendrecht-Carnisselande and Smitshoek.

Road Two Dutch motorways pass through Barendrecht: • The A15 runs west to east along the northern part of the town and is part of the Rotterdam ring road. Its exit at IJsselmonde is located in the north-east of Barendrecht. • The A29 runs north to south and divides Smitshoek and Carnisselande from the rest of Barendrecht. Its exit at Barendrecht is located in the south of the municipality. South of Barendrecht, it passes through the Heinenoordtunnel under the Oude Maas. Vaanplein, the interchange between the A15 and A29, is situated within the borders of Barendrecht.

Rail A number of railways pass through Barendrecht: • The Breda–Rotterdam railway, originally known as Staatslijn I when it opened in 1872, runs along the east side of Barendrecht. The Barendrecht railway station is located on this line; it was initially opened in 1872 before moving to its current location in 2001. • The HSL-Zuid is the high-speed rail line between Amsterdam and the Belgium border passing through Rotterdam. The southern section of the dedicated line branches off from the conventional line just north of Barendrecht and runs parallel to it through the town, but trains do not stop. • The Betuweroute, a double track freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, runs along the north and eastern sides of Barendrecht, at one point paralleling the passenger line and HSL-Zuid. Queen Beatrix opened this route in 2007. The nine tracks of all three of these lines, which run through the railway station, are covered over a length of 1.5 km (0.9 mi) to reduce the noise to the surrounding neighbourhoods. Nederlandse Spoorwegen services the station, with trains departing towards Dordrecht to the south-east and Rotterdam to the north-west four times an hour during the day during weekdays, reduced to two times an hour during the rest of the railways' normal service hours. A major junction between the three railway lines north of the station was the site of a train accident in 2009. Two freight trains collided head on, killing one of the drivers and serious injuring another. A passenger train could not stop in time and collided with the wreckage.

Local public transit As a suburb of Rotterdam, commuters in Barendrecht have access to extensive local transport services operated by RET, whose tram line 25 runs north-south through the western part of Barendrecht with its southern terminus in Carnisselande. The tram runs to the Rotterdam Centraal railway station through the city centre and beyond to its northern terminus in Schiebroek. The RET also operates several bus lines through Barendrecht: • three lines, via different routes, from the railway station to Zuidplein, • a line from the railway station to Kralingse Zoom, • a short local route from Zuidplein to the Barendrecht community of Smitshoek, and • another short line departing from the east side of the railway station. Arriva runs two additional bus lines: a line from city hall to the Heinenoord bus terminal, and a line from the Barendrecht railway station to the Zwijndrecht railway station.