Schaesberg – Simpelveld railway line

Richterich / Landgraaf – Schin op Geul
Course book section (DB) :	last 451
Route length:	12.5 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend Route from Heerlen 0.0 Landgraaf until 1986 Schaesberg Route to Herzogenrath 2.1 Eygelshoven until 1966 Hopel 4.0 Chevremont 5.7 Kerkrade Centrum from here ZLSM museum railway Domaniale Mijn Wilhelm-Sophia-Mijn 8.0 Spekholzerheide from 1970 to 1988 Kerkrade West Rijksweg 76 Former Aachen – Maastricht railway line, now a ZLSM museum railway from Vetschau 12.5 Simpelveld only up to here "million line" 16.7 Eijs- Wittem continuation as a museum railway 18.7 Wijlré- Gulpen Route from Heerlen 22.1 Schin op Geul ( wedge station ) end of the museum railway line Route to Maastricht

The railway Schaesberg-Simpelveld , also million line (Dutch Miljoenenlijn is) called, is a 12.5-kilometer long and 1934 opened railway line between Simpelveld and Schaesberg in the church today Landgraaf in the province of Limburg in the Netherlands and connects the railway line Aachen-Maastricht with the Sittard – Herzogenrath railway line . The name of the only mountain route in the Netherlands is derived from the high construction costs, which totaled 12.5 million Dutch guilders , as the hilly landscape required extensive earthworks with deep cuts and high dams. In 1988 the section from Simpelveld to Kerkrade was initially closed, but reopened as a museum railway in 1995 after being taken over by the Zuid-Limburgse Stoomtrein Maatschappij (ZLSM) . Regular passenger traffic is currently only taking place on the section between Landgraaf and Kerkrade-Centrum, which has been electrified since 1986. This section has been operated by Veolia Transport since 2007 , which offers half-hourly continuous trains from Kerkrade via Heerlen and Valkenburg to the Limburg provincial capital Maastricht .

history

The idea of ​​building the Simpelveld – Schaesberg railway line arose from the need to install another colliery railway to transport the coal from the pits in the Aachen-Limburg district to its destinations. After approval by the Dutch state, construction of the two-lane line began in 1924, which was in the hands of the national railway company Nederlandse Spoorwegen via a subsidiary . Due to numerous geological and geographical obstacles on this route in South Limburg, which is also known as "Dutch Switzerland", the expansion was delayed until 1934 and the costs for the route, ramparts and dams, bridges and tunnels rose to the above-mentioned 12.5 Million guilders. The existing section from Simpelveld via Spekholzerheide to Domaniale Mijn in Kerkrade , which had been in operation as a coal railway since 1871, could also be integrated into the route. Finally, the Simpelveld – Schaesberg connection was officially opened on June 15, 1934.

During the Second World War , one of the two tracks was shut down and broken off, with the remaining one being repaired for further operation after the war. From 1949 the line was also opened for passenger traffic, as freight traffic became meaningless with the increasing number of collieries, at the latest with the closure of Domaniale Mijn in 1969. Finally, in 1986 the Landgraaf – Kerkrade Centrum section, which is also used by the Sittard – Herzogenrath railway line, was electrified. Two years later, on May 28, 1988, the end of the million dollar line from Schaesberg to Simpelveld came and the railway line had to be shut down.

ZLSM museum railways in South Limburg

A few weeks earlier, on March 24, 1988, the "Zuid-Limburgse Stoomtrein Maatschappij" was founded with its seat in Simpelveld, which deals exclusively with the maintenance and operation of historic railway lines in South Limburg. After obtaining all the necessary permits, an agreement was signed on July 28, 1994 between the ZLSM and the Nederlandse Spoorwegen to set up a museum railway on the route from Kerkrade-Centrum to Simpelveld, which was finally opened in 1995. In addition, the ZLSM also received approval to operate the section of the Aachen – Maastricht line from Schin op Geul via Simpelveld to Vetschau , which is not part of the million line, as an independent museum railway, which has created a network of historical railway lines with regular ones Railway lines are connected and can be combined with one another. In 2007 a switch was reinstalled in Schin op Geul, so that continuous journeys to Valkenburg aan de Geul on the old railway line of the Aachen – Maastricht line are again possible, creating a further connection to the Heerlen – Maastricht line, which has been in place since 1915 and later electrified originated. Among other things, Swedish steam locomotives and Uerdingen rail buses are used on the million-dollar line .

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  ZLSM steam locomotive B 1289

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  Uerdinger rail bus at Schin op Geul station

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  ZLSM diesel locomotives Spaniol and Conrad

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  ZLSM passenger coaches 21035-05

After the ZLSM ran into liquidity problems in 2012, the province of Limburg and the four neighboring communities of Valkenburg, Simpelveld, Kerkrade and Gulpen-Wittem acquired the route on December 12, 2013 and secured the maintenance of the route with the necessary investments in costly maintenance of the infrastructure.

For some time now, plans have been underway on both the Dutch and German sides to establish a new direct connection between Aachen and Maastricht, including the West Campus and the Avantis industrial park, and possibly via Kerkrade-Centrum and from there via the old million line to Simpelveld . However, ideas about routing and financing still differ widely and will - if at all - only be implemented in the indefinite future.

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 ( table of contents ).
• Bernd Franco Hoffmann: Disused railway lines in the Rhineland. Sutton-Verlag, Erfurt 2014, ISBN 978-3-95400-396-9 .

Web links

Commons : ZLSM  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• History million line
• Information on eisenbahnnostalgie-deutschland.de ( Memento from September 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Guus Ferée: Miljoenenlijn has a future again. In: railway magazine. 8/2013, pp. 30-33.
2. ↑ Template - FB 61/0726 / WP16 of the city of Aachen from April 6, 2012
3. ^ Udo Kals: Past Avantis directly from Aachen to Maastricht. In: Aachener Zeitung . April 10, 2014.