Liège – Maastricht railway line
| Liège – Maastricht | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Course book range : | L 40 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 31 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Liège – Maastricht railway is a 31-kilometer international railway line that connects the two Meuse metropolises.
geography
The electrified double-track connection follows the scenic banks of the Meuse in its northern part and crosses the Liège industrial area, which is characterized by heavy industry, in its southern part .
Important nodes
The route starts at the Liège-Guillemins passenger station , the new Liège main train station , from where there are connections to Hasselt / Antwerp, Maastricht, Luxembourg, Namur and Brussels. Due to the railway technology, the kilometering only begins at the Liège crossroads Y Val Benoit .
In the Maastricht terminus there are connections to Arriva to Sittard and Roermond and to the IC (NS) via Eindhoven and Utecht to Amsterdam. Aachen can also be reached via Heerlen with the RE 18 ( LIMAX ).
Branching routes
- Liège – Aachen (at the Liège crossroads Y Val Benoit )
- High-speed line from Aachen to Liège
- Bressoux - Chertal (industrial railway)
- Montzen route at the tower station Vise (with connecting loop and track triangle )
Operation and history
The line was opened in 1861 and electrified as part of a modernization offensive by SNCB in the 1980s.
Since local traffic on this connection has always played a somewhat subordinate role compared to international long-distance traffic , numerous less frequented train stations and stops were given up in the post-war period.
Until 2012, the long-distance route was operated on weekdays by trains on the Belgian Intercity Line O (Brussels - Liège - Maastricht) every hour. The IC sets common for Belgium from a locomotive of the NMBS / SNCB series 13 and | 11 cars were used. In the off-peak hours and on weekends, this line was limited to the Liège - Maastricht section and used with conventional railcar sets of the NMBS / SNCB series AM 62-79 .
Since there are connections to Paris and London in Brussels, the new IC O from Maastricht could reach Paris in 2 hours and 58 minutes, for example, to London it takes four hours and 20 minutes.
In 2012 the intercity connection was discontinued. There is now a regional train running again , which also stops in Eijsden and Maastricht Randwyck. Eijsden is now connected to the rail network again after five years. Since September 3, 2018, the S 43 has replaced the L train as part of the introduction of the Liège S-Bahn , trains of the AM 80 series continue to operate
| line | Line designation | Line course |
|---|---|---|
| P | Amplifier train | HVZ: (Bruxelle Midi -) Liege-Guillemins - Visé |
| P 43 | Local train | Mon – Fri: Hasselt - Liege-Guillemins - Maastricht
Sat, Sun: Liège-Guillemins - Maastricht |
Trivia
The Liège Vennes (H) stop was explicitly opened in 1905 for only one year for the “Liège International” world exhibition there . The successor station was the Liège Vennes station, built in 1928 and closed in 1956 .
Web links
- history
- Route data (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Maastricht-Brussel-Express rijdt niet meer. ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Message on nshispeed.nl, accessed on September 1, 2012
- ↑ Route timetable of the NMBS for route 40
- ↑ Trein komt terug in Eijsden . ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press release from the municipality of Eijsden-Margraten, November 10, 2011
