Aachen – Maastricht railway line

Aachen – Maastricht
Route number (DB) :	2545
Course book section (DB) :	last 451 (1992)
Route length:	36.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	Schin op Geul – Maastricht: 1500 V  =
Legend Distance of Hasselt (since 1858) 36.5 Maastricht Route from Venlo 34.9 Limmel 33.9 Marienwarth Rijksweg 2 32.7 Rothem 29.9 Meerssen Rijksweg 79 29.5 Vroenhof 28.0 Houthem-St. Gerlach formerly von Löwenbrauerei in Plenkert 25.0 Valkenburg aan de Geul 23.5 Old Valkenburg 22.0 Schin op Geul beginning of the museum railway (since 1995) Link to Heerlen (since 1915) 18.5 Wijlre-Gulpen 16.5 Eijs-Wittem Line from Schaesberg (1934–1988),   museum railway (since 1995) formerly from Grube Domaniale Mijn (since 1871) 12.5 Simpelveld 10.5 Bocholtz 8.5 Border between Germany and the Netherlands 7.1 Aachen-Vetschau end of the museum railway (since 1995) formerly von Grube Carl-Friedrich (1903–1927) Line from Mönchengladbach A 4 5.8 Richterich ( Üst , formerly Bf ) Aachen West Esig Former route straight 2.9 Aachen West Aachen Templerbend ( Inselbahnhof , until 1910) Montzen route to Tongeren ( no level ) Aachen Schanz Aachen Marschierthor ( Inselbahnhof , until 1905) Line from Liège Aachen Hbf (since 1905) Route to Cologne Swell:

The Aachen – Maastricht railway line is a railway line that was opened in 1853 by the Prussian Aachen-Maastricht Railway Company (AMEG) and its Dutch sister company of the same name, Aken-Maastrichtsche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (AMSM). It was the first Dutch route that went abroad and was used to transport people and goods, both for travelers between Aachen and Maastricht and for farmers from the region to transport their goods and as a colliery railway for transporting coal from the surrounding areas Mines of the Aachen-Limburg district to their destinations.

Over the years, this new railway line was used to establish connections to the already well-developed Belgian and French railway network as well as to the network of the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft and the Royal Directorate of the Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrorter Eisenbahn and its successor, the Bergisch-Märkischen Railroad company .

The line was closed in 1992 and partially dismantled. Since then, rail traffic between Aachen and Maastricht has been via the Sittard – Herzogenrath connection .

Part of the old route has been used by the Zuid-Limburgse Stoomtrein Maatschappij museum railway since 1995 .

history

The first plans to build a rail link between Aachen and the port of Antwerp via Maastricht and Hasselt (Belgium) were presented to the public in 1831 by James Cockerill . However, these were initially rejected because it was assumed that Cockerill wanted to gain personal advantages through the route, because he himself owned numerous coal mines in the Dutch province of Limburg . At the same time there were similar considerations on the Dutch side, which only became more concrete after the London Conference of 1838/1839. A commission was then founded under the leadership of Winand Clermont and Petrus Regout to implement the rail link to Aachen. Despite the support of the Royal Commissioner and the Dutch King Willem II himself, the plan was initially rejected by the States General .

It was only through the personal commitment of David Hansemann five years after Cockerill's death in 1843 that the plans were taken up again in both Germany and the Netherlands and the route planning was concretized. For this purpose, on 14./15. In July 1845, the two operating companies Aachen-Maastricht Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft and Aken-Maastrichtsche Spoorweg-Maatschappij were founded, which were granted the concession to build the line, which was to be financed by private investors from both countries. At the same time, the Prussian King Wilhelm I granted the operating company the rights to use the Domaniale Mijn hard coal mine in Kerkrade for 99 years, which ensured the delivery of the coal required for the locomotives. Finally, the Aachen-Maastricht railway line was officially opened on October 23, 1853.

After AMEG ran into financial difficulties just a few years later, the route network was leased to Grand Central Belge on August 1, 1867 , which in turn was nationalized in 1897. A year later, the Dutch section of the line was taken over by the Dutch State Railways and the German part by the Prussian railway administration. The Prussian operating company AMEG then merged with Domaniale Mijn, whereas its Dutch sister company AMSM existed for a long time and was not liquidated until 1921 and was also taken over by the state in 1924.

Shortly after the Second World War, the Dutch State Railways were the first European country to introduce large-scale clock timetables in local and long-distance traffic. From 1970 onwards, the Spoorslag '70 concept was generally used at least every hour, and a new product was the Intercity , which was still unknown in Germany at the time , such as the D line between Zandvoort aan Zee (Amsterdam) and Maastricht and Heerlen.

In the Netherlands in the 1980s, special direct trains (known as Valkenburg Expres ) ran on Saturdays during the summer holidays from Amsterdam , The Hague and Zwolle to Valkenburg , which is of considerable tourist importance for the country. The Valkenburg Express consisted partly of regular intercity trains on the Zandvoort - Amsterdam - Eindhoven - Maastricht line, which continued to Valkenburg (and back) on holiday Saturdays, but others also consisted of special train runs that only run on these days and outside the usual set cycle times and sometimes even ran through regular IC train stations such as' s-Hertogenbosch, Weert, Roermond or Sittard without stopping. For example, the 1985 timetable provided for five extended ICs and three special trains to and from Valkenburg, some of them via Heerlen instead of Maastricht. In 1993 no more ICs were extended, but there were still three special trains, all via Maastricht.

After freight traffic had increasingly declined due to the collapse of the 1960s, the Aachen – Maastricht line, which had previously run every two hours until then, was officially shut down at the end of May 30, 1992 (the international Aachen - Netherlands link was replaced on the following day Herzogenrath – Heerlen line , still used for freight traffic, relocated), and only the section from Schin op Geul to Maastricht was retained for the Heerlen – Maastricht link. This had already been fully electrified in 1945 and was operated by Veolia Transport Nederland between 2007 and 2016 . Since the timetable change in December 2016, Arriva has been operating the stop and sneltreins on the route. With the timetable change in December 2018, it is planned to extend an hourly Sneltrein from Heerlen via Herzogenrath to Aachen main station. The Zuid-Limburgse Stoomtrein Maatschappij (ZLSM), founded in 1988, also took over part of the former route and initially reactivated the section from Aachen-Vetschau to Simpelveld and from 2007 back to Valkenburg. As a result, a newly established museum railway was able to run between the Aachen-Vetschau stop and Simpelveld from 1995 . Most of the disused tracks on the German side between Vetschau and the junction at Richterich were dismantled.

There are plans on both the Dutch and German sides to establish a new direct connection between Aachen and Maastricht, including the RWTH Campus West and the Avantis industrial park , which was located on the former site of the Aachen Westbahnhof, and possibly via Kerkrade-Centrum and from there via the old one Establish million line to Simpelveld.

Route and branches

Together Dusseldorf Aachen by train, later Märkischen Bergisch with the railway company, told the Aachen-Maastricht Railway Company the tracks from Aachen Main Station , initially until the merger in 1905 still from the station Marschierthor off to the station Richterich with the Aachen – Mönchengladbach railway line . As early as January 27, 1857, a secondary branch connected to the Kämpchen mine via Kohlscheid. From Richterich train station, the main line then ran via Vetschau to the border there, and finally continued via Simpelveld , Valkenburg aan de Geul and Meerssen to Maastricht with continuation of the line to Hasselt.

Between Richterich and Vetschau a railway siding was for 1903-1927 anthracite coal promoting pit Carl-Friedrich operated, which was shut down after the closure of the mine 1927th From Simpelveld, the eight-kilometer supply line to Domaniale Mijn in Kerkrade was added in 1871, from which the railway received its coal. Initially, the coal wagons operating there were pulled by horses until the traction was switched to locomotives in 1880. In Simpelveld, the coal was then transferred to the standard-gauge freight cars of the Aachen-Maastricht Railway. Ten years later, also from Simpelveld, construction began on the 12.5 kilometer long connection via Schaesberg to Landgraaf , which was only opened in 1934, and which, because of its enormously high costs, went down in the annals as a million-dollar line . In Schin op Geul a junction was built in the direction of Heerlen in 1915 , over which the Heerlen-Maastricht railway line still runs today, as a result of which the station in Schin op Geul was converted into a wedge station . In addition, a connecting track to the Löwen Brewery in Plenkert was operated from Valkenburg between 1886 and 1950.

Because of the necessary customs formalities for cross-border commuters, the Aachen-Templerbend, built in 1858, was laid out as an island train station . On the Dutch side, because of its initial rejection of the railway line, it was not the border town of Bocholtz that was awarded the contract as the border station, but Simpelveld a few kilometers away, which was then responsible for the customs formalities there.

In the course of time, the following stations were served:

• Aachen Marschierthor, united in 1905 with the Rheinischer Bahnhof to form Aachen Central Station ,
• Aachen Templerbend (km 2.9), built in 1858, replaced from 1910 by the new and slightly relocated Aachen West station,
• Richterich (km 6.5),
• Aachen-Vetschau (km 8.0), only stopping point,
• Bocholtz (km 10.5), initially only a stop, since 1890 train station,
• Simpelveld (km 12.5),
• Eijs-Wittem (km 16.5), only stopping point,
• Wijlre gulps ; km 18.5
• Schin op Geul; km 22.0; initially only stopping point, from 1913 train station and from 1915 wedge train station,
• Alt-Valkenburg (km 23.5), only stopping point,
• Valkenburg aan de Geul (km 25.0), the oldest still existing train station in the Netherlands
• Houthem-St. Gerlach (km 28.0), only stopping point, set up for pilgrims to the nearby St. Gerlach Monastery,
• Vroenhof (km 29.5), only a stop, served the farmers to transport their goods,
• Meerssen (km 29.9),
• Rothem (km 32.7), only stopping point, set up for the factory workers in Maastricht,
• Marienwarth (km 33.9), only stopping point (as before),
• Limmel (km 34.9), only stopping point (as before),
• Maastricht (km 36.5), the first Maastricht train station was not in Maastricht itself, but outside the fortress walls in the city of Meerssen, and was only moved to Maastricht in 1915, later the lines to Venlo and Liège crossed here .

literature

• Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen: 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Verlag Schweers + Wall, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-921679-91-5 ( d-nb.info ).
• Heimatfreunde des Heydener Ländchen 1989 eV (Ed.): The Aachen-Maastricht Railway - A documentation of its history from 1830-1992 . Aachen 1992

Web links

• Description of route 2545 in the NRWbahnArchiv by André Joost
• History of the Aachen-Simpelveld-Valkenburg-Maastricht line
• The Aachen-Maastricht Railway Company
• Aachen railway history
• Entry on Aachen-Maastsrichter Eisenbahn in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association

Pictures of stocks:

• Founder's share no. 18.855 from the Aachen-Maastricht Railway Company
• Founder's share no. 2459

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
2. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
3. ↑ Nederlandse Spoorwegen: Vernieuwd Spoorboekje 85/86 (redesigned course book), valid June 2, 1985 to May 31, 1986, compilation of the Valkenburg-Expresse on p. 375
4. ↑ Nederlandse Spoorwegen: Spoorboekje 93/94 (course book), valid May 23, 1993 to May 28, 1994, compilation of the Valkenburg Express on p. 181
5. ↑ info at alles-schnucke.de
6. ↑ Template - FB 61/0726 / WP16 of the city of Aachen from April 6, 2012
7. ^ Udo Kals: Past Avantis directly from Aachen to Maastricht , in Aachener Zeitung from April 10, 2014
8. ^ André Joost: Route archive 2545 - Abzw Richterich - Richterich border. In: NRWbahnarchiv. Retrieved June 25, 2017 . 
9. ↑ The million line