HSL 3

map

HSL 3
Route length:	36.1 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	25 kV 50 Hz  ~
Top speed:	260 km / h
Legend from Aachen Hergenrath Göhl , Hammerbrücke (220 m) 36.1 Hammerbrücke to Liège (old route) (see below), junction, start of HSL 3 Hauset railway bridge Walhorn tunnel (1000 m) Welkenraedt – Raeren Ruyfftalbrücke (264 m), Liège – Aachen (old route) Battice Viaduct (1232 m) Viaduct Herve (505 m) José Viaduct (421 m) Voie des Maçon tunnel (577 m) Soumagne Tunnel (6505 m) Weser (Vesdre) from Hergenrath (old route) 0 Chênée to Liège Swell:

The HSL 3 (Dutch: Hogesnelheidslijn 3 , French: LGV 3 or Ligne à grande vitesse 3 ) is a 36.1 km long Belgian high-speed line that runs from Chênée to the Hammerbrücke (Hergenrath) . The line is part of the high-speed line Paris – Brussels – Cologne .

Route description

Location and course of HSL 3 in the Belgian high-speed network

From the Liège-Guillemins train station to Chênée, trains using the new HSL 3 line initially use the old Liège – Aachen line with a maximum speed of 120 km / h over a length of 4 km . In the station Chênée then the new line begins and it follows shortly after crossing the Weser the soumagne tunnel . This topographically determined tunnel near Soumagne is the longest railway tunnel in Belgium at 6530 m. In addition, the line has nine other tunnels that are between a few dozen meters and 1.2 km long.

Between the villages of Soumagne and Herve , the route meets the A3 ( E 40 ) motorway and then runs parallel to it, bundling traffic routes to Walhorn . The new line ends behind Walhorn and turns into a five-kilometer long and 140 km / h upgraded line to the Belgian-German border. The old route to Aachen is reached at the Hammerbrücke junction near Hauset . HSL 3 is 36.1 km long.

Together with HSL 1 and HSL 2 , the railway line forms the Belgian east-west axis, with connections to Lille (and London ) and Paris . In contrast to HSL 2, intercity trains from Ostend to Eupen do not use it, but continue to use the route through the Weser valley via Verviers and Welkenraedt .

The maximum permissible speed on the new line is 260 km / h, only in the double-track Soumagne tunnel the speed of the trains is limited to 200 km / h.

The construction costs for the new line amounted to 830 million euros .

Operation and history

According to an agreement reached in 1989 by the transport ministers involved in the PBKA project, the Brussels – Aachen section was to be completed in 1998.

In autumn 2000, however, the route of the line was still open. Among other things, a route along the motorway and a crossing of the Welkenraedt station were discussed . The SNCB wanted to submit building applications for both routes by the end of the year. The route should then be determined on the basis of the results of the environmental impact assessments . The motorway variant was favored.

The surveying work was completed at the beginning of 2001. Construction of the line began in the same year. A length of 6.2 km was planned for the tunnel of the line in mid-2002; the commissioning of the new line was expected in 2005.

The structural engineering of the route was completed on December 15, 2007. Since the ICE and Thalys trains were not yet equipped with the ETCS Level 2 security technology installed on the route, commercial commissioning was delayed.

ICE trains have only been using the route since June 2009, the travel time between Aachen and Liège has been only 21 minutes instead of the previous 47 minutes, and between Cologne and Brussels 1 hour and 43 minutes. Thalys has been using the route since the timetable change on December 13, 2009; The travel time between Cologne and Paris has been reduced to around 3 hours and 13 minutes. The top speed is 250 km / h.

In connection with the construction of the route, the Liège-Guillemins station in Liège was rebuilt according to designs by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava .

technology

The line is equipped with a ballasted track with monobloc concrete sleepers and UIC-60 rails .

The route is divided into block sections with a largely constant length of around 1.6 km. To command is ETCS (first SRS 2.2.2 with additional changes of subset 108) was used. Operation at up to 260 km / h takes place under ETCS Level 2, as a fall-back level - for speeds up to 160 km / h - ETCS Level 1 is used with reduced block division. The block identifiers of the route are partially equipped with a light substitute signal . The minimum headway times are 3 minutes under ETCS Level 2 or 6 minutes under ETCS Level 1. A transition from ETCS Level 2 to ETCS Level 1 is possible after the train has stopped. Fallback level 1 is used in the event of faults in the GSM-R radio or in the ETCS centers (RBCs). Trains of both levels can run on the route at the same time.

The border crossing to Germany takes place in TBL1 + , which was set up to Aachen Hbf.

The decision to use ETCS on HSL 3 and HSL 4 was made in 1999, parallel to the decision to use TBL 2 on HSL 2.

gallery

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  Ruyfftal Bridge

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  Ruyfftalbrücke of HSL 3 and A3 motorway in traffic route bundling

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  HSL3 at Walhorn

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  Walhorn Tunnel West Portal

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  Walhorn Tunnel east portal

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  Hauset railway bridge

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  HSL 3 near Baelen

See also

• HSL 1
• HSL 2
• HSL 4
• HSL Zuid

Web links

Commons : HSL 3  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• HSL 3. In: Structurae
• Belgian high-speed site (French, with map)
• Video of the first test drive at 260 km / h on October 9, 2007 (French)
• Video of the official commissioning of HSL 3 and the Soumagne tunnel on June 12, 2009 (French)
• Information folder on the commissioning of Infrabel

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Faster to Belgium in the ICE . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , 2009, Issue 8–9, p. 412.
2. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany 2007/2008 . 6th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89494-136-9 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c} 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.
4. ↑ Review of the year 1989 . In: Die Bahn informs , ZDB -ID 2003143-9 , issue 1/1990, pp. 12-15.
5. ↑ Report German-Belgian route variants . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 11/2000, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 511.
6. ↑ Notification of construction progress on the Belgian high-speed lines . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 4/2001, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 164 f.
7. ↑ Message high-speed network completed . In: Modern Railways . Vol. 66, No. 731, 2009, ISSN  0026-8356 , p. 86.
8. ↑ ICE and TGV are speeding up against the planes . In: Handelsblatt , March 18, 2008
9. ↑ ^{a b} Amar Aouati: ERTMS / ETCS / GSM-R on the Belgian high speed lines L3 and L4 . In: signal + wire . tape 99 , no. 6 , 2007, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 31-34 .
10. ^ Jean-Jacques Gehrenbeck: Cross-border operation at 300 km / h . In: signal + wire . tape 99 , no. 3 , 2007, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 32-35 .
11. ↑ ^{a b} To Van den Abeele, Johan Verschaeve: Train control and train protection in Belgium - today and tomorrow . In: signal + wire . tape 99 , no. 11 , 2007, ISSN  0037-4997 , p. 14-18 .