These items come from Line News International ISSN 1354-0947 (c) The Branch Line Society 2001 International Editor: Brian Philp, 11 Arden Street, Edinburgh EH9 1BR, Scotland, UK, rail@rinbad.demon.co.uk

2001

1130][FR][BE] (Charleville-Mézières -) Givet SNCF - Heer-Agimont SNCB - Hastière - Dinant: (R.0904; Ball 16B2-17A3) Passenger reopening is planned for summer 2002, with through TER regional trains from Reims to Namur, worked by SNCF X73500 single diesel railcars. (L’Écho du Rail, #216, December 2000)

1166][FR][BE] Nancy TVR guided-transit: Essey - Brabois: Stemming from Bombardier’s early-1990s experiments on the Guided Light Transit test-track occupying the formation of the former Jemelle - Rochefort (- Houyet) line in Belgium (BLN 704.02, 737.0230), the Transport sur Voie Réservée concept is not exactly a railway, but uses low-floor articulated rubber-tyred trolleybuses powered from overhead wiring but guided mechanically by a rail embedded in the roadway. Tramways & Urban Transit for January 2001 reported that this first line in revenue service opened on 8 December 2000.

1192][BE] Brussel-Schaarbeek/Bruxelles-Schaerbeek: (R.0623; Ball 10B2) Since the May 2000 timetable change the car-sleeper trains have been handled at Denderleeuw, and the sidings at Schaarbeek where the cars were once loaded and unloaded had been lifted by January 2001, to allow for construction work on the Bruxelles - Liège high-speed line.

1193][BE] Bruxelles/Brussel metro and trams: Extensive work to improve the environs of Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel-Zuid, the city’s main station, caused temporary closure of Rue Theo Verhaegen Straat from 17 October 2000, with tram routes #81 and 82 diverted via Avenue Wielemans Laan using an unusual curve at the junction with Avenue Van Volxem Laan. Tram route #18 is diverted to run direct from Midi/Zuid via Avenue Van Volxem Laan to Saint Denis/Sint Denijs, following the regular route of tram #52. In connection with the Bizet - Erasme extension of metro line 1B, tram route 56 was cut back to terminate at Saint Nicolas/Sint Niklaas with effect from 12 January 2001. The former north-western terminus of metro line 1A, Stade, was in the open, but the recent Stade - Roi Baudouin/Koning Boudewijn extension is entirely in tunnel, including a new subsurface station at Stade.

1242][BE][DE] Eupen - Raeren - Roetgen - Lammersdorf - Konzen - Monschau - Kalterherberg - Sourbrodt - Weywertz: (Ball BE-10A1, DE-47B3) Since just after World War I the Vennbahn has occupied a unique corridor of Belgian territory passing south through several German villages near the border, its unusual history being summarised in BLN 717.05 and http://www.rinbad.demon.co.uk/be_venn.htm. The line was badly damaged in World War II, and some of its track still dates from 1945 when American Army engineers made the basic repairs necessary for reopening. By the time SNCB closed the Vennbahn to normal traffic in 1989, the track was so bad that in places on the Raeren - Konzen section trains were limited to 5km/h, and even on the rather better Monschau - Sourbrodt section to 40km/h, reduced in 1993 to 20km/h. After the preservation group took over, thousands of sleepers and several kilometres of rails were replaced, especially on the northern section, but some of the contract work was not done adequately, particularly as regards the sleepering beneath the rail-joints, and the many dipped joints make the trains ride badly. Overall, track condition is again poor. Furthermore, the relatively few active preservation-group members have six locomotives and nearly 40 vehicles to maintain, and ensuring the service of seasonal trains operated wholly by volunteers cannot be easy. For many ordinary customers the single train in each direction may not be a particularly attractive offer, especially when a one-way trip from Raeren south to Weywertz, then east to Bütgenbach, takes nearly 2h30min. Around 80% of the customers come from Germany, and have to make a not-very-convenient journey from Aachen by bus, or come by car to Eupen or Raeren, neither of which has good parking facilities. The result is that passenger numbers have been falling in recent years. In early 2001 it was rumoured that Prignitzer Eisenbahn, commercial operators of regional trains in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg, might take over passenger workings on the Vennbahn, perhaps using their Class VT798 railbuses, whose low axle-load would minimise further track damage.

1273][FR][BE] Nancy rail-guided trolleybuses: Essey - Brabois: (R.1166) The city of Nancy are pioneering the Bombardier centre-rail mechanically-guided trolleybus system variously known as Tram sur Pneus (tram on rubber tyres), Transport sur Voie Réservée (TVR) and Guided Light Transit (GLT). The first line, its opening delayed from December 2000, began public service on 11 February 2001 but closed again following accidents on 6 and 10 March 2001. It seems that vehicles switching from guided to unguided mode collided with masts supporting overhead wires. (http://www.lrta.org)

1399][BE] (Brugge -) Y Dudzele - Zeebrugge: (BLN 828.0277, 830.0326, R.0666; Ball 7B3; NMBS 51A) Weekday trains, all local workings and mainly used by commuters and students, will continue to serve the present passenger station (on the truncated former through line east to Knokke), but from the June 2001 timetable change, weekend trains will terminate instead at Zeebrugge-Strand, a new station being opened close to the beach, on the hitherto freight-only line heading north under the metre-gauge Oostende - Zeebrugge - Knokke coastal tram line and on towards the roll-on/roll-off port facilities used by P&O and North Sea Ferries. (Trans-fer, #119, April 2001)

1400][BE] Y Zaventem - Bruxelles-National-Aéroport/Brussel-Nationaal-Luchthaven: (BLN 831.0355, R.0412; Ball 10B2; NMBS 36C) The 1998 airport station is at present a terminus served from the Brussel direction via the west-facing flying junction Y Zaventem off the Brussel - Leuven - Liège main line 36. At Nossegem, one station to the east of Zaventem on line 36, provision of an east-to-north curve with flying junctions is under way, which will allow the airport also to be served by trains coming from the Leuven direction. The following phase of development will see the underground airport terminus becoming a through station, with line 36C extended to the north-west to meet the Brussel - Antwerpen main line 25/27 in another triangle, not yet designed in detail. The final layout, two high-speed triangles with only a short section between them, has been dubbed ‘the diabolo’, after the game using a double-cone spinning-top. (Trans-fer, #119, April 2001)

1401][BE][DE] (Liège -) Welkenraedt SNCB - Aachen DB (- Köln): (R.0528; Ball BE-10A2, DE-37A1) SNCB envisage from 2002 diverting all their (Oostende - Brussel - Liège -) Welkenraedt - Köln IC line B trains to run Welkenraedt - Eupen, leaving this international main line to be served in the daytime by Thalys TGVs. (Trans-fer, #119, April 2001)

1405][DE][BE] Stolberg Hbf - Stolberg-Hammer - Walheim DB - Raeren SNCB: (Ball DE-37A1, BE-10A2) In autumn 2000 DB Netz sold this line, the German section of the Vennbahn, to Stolberg-based Euregio Verkehrsschienennetz GmbH (R.0973). EVS envisage passenger reopening of various lines in the area (R.1173, 1246) including the Vennbahn to the Belgian frontier, though to run beyond Stolberg-Hammer even as far as Walheim they would have to do substantial repairs to the bridge over the river Inde. From the frontier to the Belgian junction of Raeren is less than 2km, but the SNCB-owned section is out of use, and indeed formally barred to trains since the sale to EVS caused the 1979 DB/SNCB international agreement regarding Walheim - Raeren traffic to lapse. (Trans-fer, #119, April 2001)

1455][BE] (Boom -) Y Sauvegarde - Willebroek: (BLN 802.0225, 836.0490; Ball 8B3; NMBS 52/2) This short north-to-south curve was electrified and resignalled along with the (Antwerpen -) Boom - Y Sauvegarde - Puurs line (reopened to passengers 25 May 1998; BLN 829.0305; NMBS 52). Line 52/2 carried at least one test train, and was recorded as active from 27 April 1998 in Lignes ferrées de la SNCB, the list published by GTF in November 1998, but it seems to have no regular traffic. Timing staff at NMBS headquarters booked a railtour to run that way on 18 May 2001, but, on the day, local staff prevented use of the line, saying the curve had never been commissioned and it was not possible to signal the train round it.

1456][BE] Brussel/Bruxelles: Y Harenheide - Y Diegem West: (Ball 10B2) The Diegem end of this curve has a flying junction whose southern chord (normally used in the east-to-south direction) was seen on 18 May 2001 to have been disconnected for some time. The two weekday passenger trains booked over the curve do not seem to have been suspended, so presumably both have been using the other (normally south-to-east) chord. (See http://www.steane.com/egtre/be_route.htm)

1457][BE] Brussel/Bruxelles - Leuven (- Liège SNCB - Aachen DB): (BLN 831.0356, R.0299; Ball 8B2) North-west of Leuven station, the high-speed line now under construction diverges south of the classic main line 36 at a flying junction near Herent, and is carried on viaduct above the Leuven - Dyle canal, then above the link from line 36 into Leuven bay-platforms A to C, before running through on either side of the island-platform whose faces are numbered 3 and 2. The substantial viaducts were taking shape in May 2001. Through tracks 2 and 1 were still out of use, and northwest-facing bay-platforms A to C, which had lain out of use, were being restored. Southeast-facing bay-platform D had already been restored and since at least 28 January 2001 had been in use by most Leuven - Ottignies trains, although a few may still have been using the dive-under to and from Leuven’s higher-numbered platforms.

1459][DE][BE] Stolberg Hbf - Stolberg-Hammer/Altstadt - Breinig - Walheim (- Raeren): (Ball DE-37A1, BE-10A2) Most of the track on the Stolberg - Raeren section of the Vennbahn is in remarkably good condition, with welded rail laid in the early 1970s, though some steel sleepers from the 1930s need to be replaced. Between Breinig and Walheim however lies a major problem, the Falkenbachbrücke, a viaduct c.120m long with seven arches. Retreating SS forces at the end of World War II destroyed the easternmost two arches, which American army engineers shortly afterwards replaced by a temporary bridge. Half a century later, this temporary bridge is in very poor condition and needs to be replaced before trains could use it again. Nevertheless, reopening from Stolberg-Altstadt (formerly Stolberg-Hammer) to Raeren seems increasingly a possibility, and is the subject of negotiations involving the administration of the German-speaking region of Belgium (the Ostkantone or Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft), the local councils and the Stolberg-based company Euregio Verkehrsschienennetz GmbH who in autumn 2000 took over from DB Netz the infrastructure as far as the Belgian frontier (R.1405). (EVS are not train-operators, and the local Euregiobahn trains are being operated by a DB Regio company, DB ZugBus Nordrhein GmbH.)

When SNCB began their present pattern of inter-city services, international expresses on the Köln - Aachen - Welkenraedt - Verviers - Liège - Bruxelles main line ceased to call at Welkenraedt, and from 1984 an Aachen - Welkenraedt railbus shuttle ran six times a day to make local connections, but this was withdrawn in 1987 due to lack of passengers. Today the international main line is becoming more and more dedicated to long-distance traffic. By 2003 Thalys TGVs on the Köln - Aachen - Liège - Bruxelles - Paris route will be running hourly, and SNCB will have diverted their (Oostende - Brussel -) Welkenraedt - Köln IC trains to run Welkenraedt - Eupen instead (R.1401). Since the Thalys do not call at any station between Aachen and Liège, this will leave not only Welkenraedt but Verviers with no train from Germany - a gap which EVS hope may be filled by local trains using the Vennbahn, perhaps running hourly Aachen - Stolberg - Walheim - Raeren - Eupen to connect with SNCB IC trains. EVS, who claim to have already won back several former DB freight customers in the Stolberg area, also hope to capture for their Vennbahn route some cross-border freight traffic from the Aachen West DB - Montzen SNCB line.

As regards the Belgian section of the Vennbahn heading south along the frontier (Raeren - Roetgen - Lammersdorf - Konzen - Monschau - Kalterherberg - Sourbrodt - Weywertz) the first step may be securing the existing but hard-pressed tourist-train operation, and provision of a local freight service, and the second step restoration of passenger trains running through from and to Aachen. The German town of Monschau with its medieval centre (and its station on the Belgian Vennbahn) has a particular interest in such regular services. In the more distant future the closed Aachen-Rothe Erde - Philipswerke - Brand - Kornelimünster - ex-Abzw Hahn (- Walheim) line may reopen, though the Philipswerke - Kornelimünster section is now occupied by a popular and attractive cycle-path.

1487][BE] Court-Saint-Étienne - Genappes (- Baulers): (Ball 8B1) SNCB freight line 141 sees regular traffic only during the sugar-beet season. One of SNCB’s new Spanish-built Class 41 diesel railcar units worked a Patrimoine Ferroviaire Touristique railtour on 2 June 2001, traversing slowly and with some difficulty the many level-crossings and the vegetation growing across and between the tracks, taking an hour longer than timetabled to reach Genappes, where the line now ends. At Bousval, the train had to inch carefully past a lorry parked very close to the line. At Genappes, ex-British Rail shunting locomotive 03081, apparently derelict, sat parked next to the factory.

1488][BE] Fleurus - Lambusart - Auvelais: (Ball 8B1) After two abortive attempts on previous dates, a PFT railtour on 2 June 2001 visited SNCB line 147, disused from 1979 but now relaid as c.15km of single electrified track to enable future freight flows southbound from Antwerpen over the Athus-Meuse route to avoid the steep gradient at Mont-Saint-Guibert on the Bruxelles - Luxembourg main line (BLN 813.0521). The Fleurus end follows a new alignment (R.0301). The former station at Lambusart seems to have disappeared completely. At the southern end the original northwest-to-west curve to Tamines has gone and the new northwest-to-east curve links line 147 to Charleroi - Namur line 130 at Auvelais. Also lifted is the prolongation of line 147 beneath line 130 to connect with Tamines - Denée-Maredsous line 150 (R.0887).

1489][BE] Ciney - Spontin - Spontin-Sources - Dorinne-Durnal (- Yvoir): (Ball 17A3-9A1) SNCB line 128, retained for many years to be available for strategic military use, sees only Patrimoine Ferroviaire Touristique tourist trains, operating from Ciney as the Chemin de Fer du Bocq. Though advertised to do so, it seems the CF du Bocq trains did not run to Dorinne-Durnal in summer 2000 (R.0815). An SNCB Class 41 diesel railcar working a freight-lines railtour for PFT on 2 June 2001 was said to be the first passenger train since 1971 beyond Spontin-Sources, proceeding cautiously at c.5km/h and stopping just short of the entrance to Dorinne-Durnal station loop. No buildings and indeed few traces of the station remain at this isolated spot deep in the woods. Track is still in place beyond towards Yvoir, but is now in very poor condition.

1490][BE] Statte - Huy-St.Hilaire - Marchin (- Ciney): (BLN 711.05; Ball 9A1) A PFT railtour on 2 June 2001 visited SNCB freight line 126, pausing in the well-preserved station at Huy-St.Hilaire before continuing to the sidings alongside the industrial plant at Marchin, where a shunting locomotive posed for photographs alongside the Class 41 diesel railcar. The railcar did not however continue south as planned to the former Marchin passenger station, presumably the limit of the line. The Marchin - Ciney section is said to be abandoned, but it did appear to be in freight use for at least a short distance north of the junction with the Namur - Arlon (- Luxembourg) line 162 at Ciney.

1491][BE][DE] (Liège -) Chênée - Soumagne - Welkenraedt / Walhorn SNCB/NMBS - Aachen DB: (BLN 832.0372; Ball BE-9B1-10A2, DE-37A1) By the beginning of June 2001 construction of the high-speed line east of Liège had begun. Some substantial works can be seen at Chenée, where the new line diverges from the classic Chênée - Verviers - Welkenraedt line to enter a c.6km tunnel which will become the longest in Belgium, thereafter following autoroute E40 to Welkenraedt. It seems that the Belgian government have still not decided the location of the eastern connection to the old line, west of Welkenraedt or just to the east at Walhorn. Beyond, trains will for the foreseeable future use the classic line across the border to Aachen. However the 693m Aachener Busch tunnel under the Aachener Stadtwald is not in good condition, and it is planned to build a new parallel single-track tunnel and then reconstruct and single-track the old tunnel. At the same time, the point where trains change between left-hand and right-hand running would be moved from the present flyover inside Germany just west of the tunnel to Aachen Hbf.

1520][BE][DE] (Liège -) Chênée - Soumagne - Walhorn SNCB - Aachen DB: (R1491; Ball BE-9B1-10A2, DE-37A1) The SNCB administrative council finally decided on 22 June 2001 that the new Ligne à Grande Vitesse east of Liège is to run to Walhorn, east of Welkenraedt and just west of the new Hammerbrücke (R.0528), where it will converge with the existing (Liège -) Chênée - Verviers - Welkenraedt - Walhorn - Aachen line 37. The selected route is cheaper, disturbs fewer properties, and is marginally faster than the other option considered, a junction west of Welkenraedt. Since SNCB have already decided to stop sending alternate Oostende - Welkenraedt IC trains to Aachen and to send them all to Eupen (R.1401), Chênée seems set to become the point where Belgian domestic traffic and international traffic split. The short Welkenraedt - Walhorn section may possibly fall entirely out of use, for no freight normally runs this way. Furthermore, if all cross-border traffic is going to arrive by the high-speed line it could become logical to rewire the Walhorn - Aachen section from 3000V dc so that the new line’s 25kV 50Hz electrification extends across the frontier to meet the German 15kV 16.7Hz in Aachen Hbf.

1549][BE] Ciney - Hamois-en-Condroz - Les Awins-en-Condroz - Clavier - Modave - Marchin - Huy-St.Hilaire - Statte: (Ball 9A1) The Ciney - Hamois section was in use until the late 1970s. In 1998 when a correspondent walked the length of line 126, the concrete-works at Ciney may have been making use of the first few hundred metres of running line (as noted in R.1490), and were certainly storing long concrete poles on old bogie wagons in nearby sidings. Beyond, most of the track was still in place, though in such an overgrown state that a machete would have been needed to follow it without occasional detours along parallel paths in forests and fields. A short length of track had been lifted at Hamois to allow new road construction. Station buildings survived at Hamois (as a private residence) and Les Awins (in use by the Scouts, quite a large building for such a deeply rural area, still carrying weathered signs like ‘Waiting room 3rd Class’ in French and Flemish, now unusual in Belgium outside officially-bilingual Bruxelles/Brussel). The line followed the valley of the river Houyoux north through some pleasant landscape to Marchin. The Marchin - Huy-St.Hilaire - Statte section, still in freight use, has the line’s only tunnels, both built for double track, and the only other major engineering work, the large viaduct over the river Meuse into Statte, where one track remains and the formation of the other has become a footpath. Reflecting its former status as the junction of Belgian State Railways’ line 126 and line 127 (Statte - Moha - Landen) and the Nord-Belge company’s line 125 along the Meuse (Namur - Statte - Huy - Liège), Statte still has quite impressive installations for a small hamlet, today really a suburb of Huy. The station square has retained much of its character, including attractive bars where a couple of glasses of excellent Belgian beer were more than welcome after a 44km walk!

1612][BE] Belgium: Train+Tram+Bus day: (R.0968) TTB day in 2001 is to be Saturday 29 September .

1628][BE] Antwerpen Centraal: (BLN 842.027; Ball 9B3) The radical reconstruction of this magnificent station was about half-complete in summer 2001, the new tracks on the Zoo side being brought into use on 24 June. The new tunnel which will carry north-south (Amsterdam - Antwerpen - Bruxelles) through trains beneath the hitherto terminal station is to be open to pedestrian visitore on 27 and 28 September 2001.

1751][DE][BE] (Stolberg Hbf -) Stolberg-Altstadt - Breinig - Walheim DB - Raeren SNCB - Eupen: (Ball DE-37A1, BE-10A2) Sunday 16 September 2001 saw a Euregiobahn-branded DB Class 644 unit conveying German and Belgian dignitaries Stolberg-Altstadt - Raeren - Eupen and return, so presumably the Falkenbachbrücke between Breinig and Walheim and the out-of-use Vennbahn track are safe enough for limited use at very slow speed, if not yet for a cross-border public service (R.1459).

1776][FR][BE] Valenciennes - Blanc-Misseron SNCF (- Quiévrain SNCB - St.Ghislain): (BLN 844.081; Ball 7B1) During 2001 SNCF laid a c.2km industrial branch from this line north to serve a new Toyota car-factory at Onnaing. Beyond Blanc-Misseron, the cross-border link to Quiévrain in Belgium, officially closed to all traffic in May 1989 (BLN 721.05), remains closed, though it would not seem physically difficult to reinstate it. As in 1995 (BLN 768.0524) SNCB are motivated to reopen the link, but SNCF are not.

1777][BE] (Anderlues -) Lobbes - Thuin heritage trams: (R.1099; Ball 8B1 not shown) The preservation group Association pour la Sauvegarde du Vicinal, together with national and local transport and environmental interests, in October 2001 began a feasibility study for extension of the metre-gauge ASVi museum tramway from Thuin south-east to Biesme-sous-Thuin, in conjunction with proposals for a long-distance footpath.