Brussels – Antwerp railway line

Brussels – Antwerp railway line
Route number :	25 (Brussels-N. – Antwerpen-Luchtbal) 27 (Brussels-N. – Antwerpen-Centraal)
Course book range :	25th
Route length:	46.8 (line 25) or 45.0 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	3 kV  =
Top speed:	160 km / h (parts of route 25) , otherwise 120 km / h
Dual track :	continuous, a total of four tracks
Operational sites and structures
Legend L.25 L.27 Brussels north-south connecting railway 0.0 0.0 Bruxelles-Nord / Brussel-Noord Line 50 to Ghent Route 36 / 36N route 161 to Namur R21 2.3 2.4 Schaarbeek / Schaerbeek to Leuven and Liège ← Start of line 25N on median A1 Line 26 to Halle Y Haren-Noord / Haren-Nord, line 26A Brussels - Flemish Brabant border 7.2 Machelen 7.2 Buda Y Machelen, 26/1 from Keelbeek-Noord / Keelbeek-Nord Y Machelen-Zuid, line 36C from Brussels Airport Y Machelen-Noord, line 36C from Brussels Airport 9.4 9.3 Vilvoorde 13.6 13.5 Eppegem Y Weerde, 27 to Muizen 16.1 15.8 Weerde A1 / E19 Flemish Brabant border - Antwerp Y Abeelstraat, end of line 25N Line 53 from Ghent 20.4 20.6 Mechelen Line 53 to Leuven Line 53A from Muizen 21.9 22.1 Mechelen-Nekkerspoel R6 Y Otterbeek Y Sint-Katelijne-Waver 26.6 26.4 Sint-Katelijne-Waver 29.0 28.8 duffel Y Lint to Lier 33.9 33.7 Kontich 36.3 36.7 Hove Mortsel tunnel (252 m) 38.1 Mortsel-Oude-God 38.2 Mortsel -Liersesteenweg Y Liersesteenweg, line 27A to the port of Antwerp Y Drabstraat, 15 from Hasselt 39.5 Mortsel-Deurnesteenweg 40.8 Mortsel Y stadium R1 Y Noord Groenenhoek, line 27A from Y Liersesteenweg Line 50 from Ghent 42.9 41.6 Antwerp-Berchem Line 27A to the port of Antwerp Antwerp tunnel (3800 m) Route 12 from Lage Zwaluwe Y Arendstraat 45.0 43.5 Antwerp-Centraal (levels +1, -1, -2) End of line 27 Line 12 from Antwerpen-Centraal Line 27A from Y Liersesteenweg Albert Canal 46.8 Antwerp-Luchtbal Line 27A to the port of Antwerp Line 12 to Lage Zwaluwe further as HSL 4 or HSL Zuid to Schiphol

The Brussels – Antwerp railway connects the Brussels agglomeration area via Vilvoorde and Mechelen with the largest city in the country, Antwerp . The 47.6 km long route consists of the double-track lines 25 and 27 and is part of the international connection from Brussels to Amsterdam and historically the first railway connection on the European mainland.

history

Replica of the L'Elephant locomotive in the Mechelen Railway Museum

The line from Brussels to Mechelen railway line was opened in 1835. It was (after Saint-Étienne-Lyon and Roanne-Andrézieux ) the third steam railway on the European continent and probably the first to pull not only freight trains but also regular passenger trains with steam power.

On May 5, 1835, in the presence of the Belgian King Leopold I and George Stephenson, three trains with 900 passengers left the Brussels-Groendreef / Bruxelles Allée Verte station and reached Mechelen station in 45 to 55 minutes. The trains were carried by the British steam locomotives, called L'ELEPHANT ("The Elephant", type 1B, built by Tayleur & Co. ), LE FLÈCHE ("The Arrow") and STEPHENSON (both type 1B1, built by Robert Stephenson & Co. ), since Great Britain was the only country at that time where marketable locomotives were manufactured. On the way back, L'ELEPHANT pulled all three trains ( coupled together) alone.

From the turn of the year 1835/36 the first steam locomotive made in Belgium, called LE BELGE ("The Belgian"), built by John Cockerill in Belgium , ran on this line .

In Mechelen station, the route is elevated to allow freedom from crossings.

One year after it opened, on May 3, 1836, the Mechelen line was extended to Antwerp's Borgerhout station (where the Antwerp-Centraal main station is now ). On September 26, 1841, the line from Brussels-Allée Verte / Groendreef station was extended to today's North Station .

The station Mechelen quickly became a hub of emerging railway network: trains could run from here in all directions. South to Brussels and France, north to Antwerp, west to Ostend (via Dendermonde, Gent and Bruges) and east to Leuven, Liège and Verviers, from 1843 to Cologne.

In the inter-war period , the railway line was electrified (3 kV) and at the same time four-track was created by building another double-track railway line - line 27 - directly in parallel. The old line kept line number 25. In the vicinity of Mechelen, line 25 was raised, and the tracks were moved in a trough between Hove and Antwerpen-Berchem . Through these measures, the connection became a high-speed line, an intersection-free connection between Brussel-Noord and Antwerp-Centraal. Exactly 100 years after the first train journey, on May 5, 1935, the first electric train with King Leopold III on board ran under 3000 volts on this route. The train traveled at a speed of 120 km / h and covered the distance in 31 minutes with a stop in Mechelen.

Line 25 was expanded for 160 km / h. An expansion for high-speed traffic was dispensed with due to the dense development and the associated high costs as well as foreseeable resistance from the population. The available investment funds were used to convert Antwerpen Centraal station from a terminus to a through station.

On March 25, 2007, the north-south connection under Antwerp was officially opened. This tunnel section connects the existing terminal station Antwerpen-Centraal with the train station Antwerp-Luchtbal where connection is made to the route Roosendaal and high-speed line Schiphol-Antwerp .

It was planned to upgrade the route to become a high-speed route. Due to a lack of political support, this project should not be implemented before 2010, meanwhile no concrete advancement of the project is recognizable.

business

A new, direct connection from Antwerp and Mechelen to Brussels Airport has been in operation as part of the Diabolo project since June 10, 2012 , reducing the travel time from Mechelen to the airport from 40 to eight minutes. In addition, a new line 25N was opened to relieve the previous Brussels - Antwerp railway line, from which the line to the airport branches off. Route 25N was partly built on the median of Autobahn 1 , for which parts of the White Children's Forest had to be cleared.

Nowadays most passenger trains use line 25. All freight trains use line 27, as well as a few passenger trains. On two sections of line 25, which are around ten kilometers long, 120 km / h are permitted, the rest allow 130 or 140 km / h. The maximum permissible speed of route 27 is 120 km / h.

You can switch between the two routes in Brussels, Vilvoorde, Mechelen, Kontich and Antwerp.

Train connections

The following trains operate in the 2012 annual timetable:

Every day

Train type	connection	service	line
Thalys	Paris - Brussels - Antwerp - Rotterdam - Amsterdam	10 times a day	25th
IC B	Brussels - Antwerp - Amsterdam	hourly	25th
IC I	Charleroi - Brussels - Antwerp	hourly	25th
IR n	Brussels - Antwerp	hourly	25th

during the week

Train type	connection	service	line
IC N	Charleroi - Brussels - Antwerp - Food	hourly	25th
IC Q	Leuven - Brussels Airport - Mechelen - Antwerp	hourly	27
IC R	Brussels - Turnhout	hourly	25th
IR b	Brussels - Antwerp	hourly	27
IR d	Antwerp - Brussels - Ath - Geraadsbergen / Tournai - Kortrijk	hourly	25th
L.	Brussels - Antwerp	hourly	25/27
P	Rush hour booster	individual trains	25/27

on the weekend

Train type	connection	service	line
L.	Brussels - Mechelen	hourly	25th
L.	Brussels - Antwerp	a train in the morning and in the evening	25th
L.	Brussels Airport - Mechelen - Antwerp	hourly	25th

Web links

Commons : Line 25  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Commons : Line 27  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Route data ( Memento from May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
• Information from Infrabel on the Diabolo project, the northern airport connection

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Appendices C.04 and E.1 of the Infrabel Terms of Use ( Memento of October 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Sven Andersen: New and upgraded lines for high-speed traffic in Belgium . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 6/2002, ISSN  1421-2811 , pp. 278–281.
3. ^ Announcement of the high-speed line Brussels - Antwerp . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 5/2005, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 240.
4. ↑ Met de trein van Mechelen naar luchthaven in eight minutes , HLN.be of June 14, 2011
5. ↑ Technical network map from Infrabel, Version 2012 ( Memento from June 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 1.69 MB)
6. ↑ Diabolo, the northern rail connection from Brussels Airport ( Memento of February 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Infrabel press release of June 7, 2012
7. ↑ ^{a b} Dutch Wikipedia on route 25
8. ↑ sporenplan.nl