Liège–Maastricht railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Status | Operational | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | The Netherlands and Belgium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Termini | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Operator(s) | National Railway Company of Belgium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1861 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line length | 29 km (18 mi) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Number of tracks | double track | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Electrification | 3 kV DC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Liège–Maastricht railway (line 40 in the Belgian numbering plan) is a railway line running from Liège in Belgium to Maastricht in the Netherlands. The line was opened in 1861.
The line runs from the Dutch province of Limburg to the Belgian province of Liège. For a very small part, it runs through the Belgian province of Limburg (near the village of Moelingen).
The main interchange stations on the Liège–Maastricht railway are:
Local stations are in Bressoux and Visé, Belgium, and in Eijsden and Randwyck on the Dutch side.
The line has overhead power at 1,500 V DC in the Netherlands and 3,000 V DC in Belgium; the break of voltage occurs just to the North of the frontier, on Dutch territory.
Transport in Belgium is facilitated with well-developed road, air, rail and water networks. The rail network has 2,950 km (1,830 mi) of electrified tracks. There are 118,414 km (73,579 mi) of roads, among which there are 1,747 km (1,086 mi) of motorways, 13,892 km (8,632 mi) of main roads and 102,775 km (63,861 mi) of other paved roads. There is also a well-developed urban rail network in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Charleroi. The ports of Antwerp and Bruges-Zeebrugge are two of the biggest seaports in Europe. Brussels Airport is Belgium's biggest airport.
Limburg, also known as Dutch Limburg, is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is bordered by Gelderland to the north and by North Brabant to its west. Its long eastern boundary forms the international border with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. To the west is the international border with the similarly named Belgian province of Limburg, part of which is delineated by the river Meuse. To the South, Limburg is bordered by the Belgian province of Liège. The Vaalserberg is on the extreme southeastern point, marking the tripoint of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
Maastricht is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the Meuse, at the point where the river is joined by the Jeker. Mount Saint Peter (Sint-Pietersberg) is largely situated within the city's municipal borders. Maastricht is adjacent to the border with Belgium and is part of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion, an international metropolis with a population of about 3.9 million, which includes the nearby German and Belgian cities of Aachen, Liège, and Hasselt.
Limburg, also known as Belgian Limburg, is a province in Belgium. It is the easternmost of the five Dutch-speaking provinces that together form the Region of Flanders, which is one of the three main political and cultural sub-divisions of modern-day Belgium.
Heerlen is a city and a municipality in the southeast of the Netherlands. It is the third largest settlement proper in the province of Limburg. Measured as municipality, it is the fourth municipality in the province of Limburg.
Roermond is a city, municipality, and diocese in the Limburg province of the Netherlands. Roermond is a historically important town on the lower Roer on the east bank of the river Meuse. It received town rights in 1231. Roermond's town centre has become a designated conservation area.
Hasselt is a Belgian city and municipality. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg in the Flemish Region.
The Jeker is a river in Belgium and in the Netherlands. It is a left-bank tributary to the river Meuse. The source of the Jeker is near the village of Geer, in the Belgian province of Liège. The river is approximately 54 kilometres (34 mi) long, of which about 50 kilometres (31 mi) is in Belgium and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) in the Netherlands, where it flows into the river Meuse at Maastricht (Netherlands).
Meuse-Inférieure was a department of the French First Republic and French First Empire in present-day Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. It was named after the river Meuse. Its territory corresponded largely with the present-day provinces of Belgian and Dutch Limburg. It was created on 1 October 1795, when the Austrian Netherlands and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège were officially annexed by the French Republic. Before this annexation, its territory was part of the County of Loon, the Austrian Upper Guelders, the Staats-Oppergelre, the County of Horne, the Abbacy of Thorn, Maastricht and part of the Lands of Overmaas. The lands of the original medieval Duchy of Limburg were associated with the Overmaas lands, lying to their south. The two regions had long been governed together and referred to collectively with both names, but the original Duchy lands were not part of this new entity.
The Duchy of Limburg or Limbourg was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire. Much of the area of the duchy is today located within Liège Province of Belgium, with a small portion in the municipality of Voeren, an exclave of the neighbouring Limburg Province. Its chief town was Limbourg-sur-Vesdre, in today's Liège Province.
Limburg was one of the provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and later Belgium. The province existed for the duration of the United Kingdom, from 1815 to 1830, and for the first years after Belgian independence, from 1830 to 1839. When King William I signed the Treaty of London in 1839, the province was split into a Belgian part and a Dutch part, the latter being a new Duchy of Limburg.
Rail transport in the Netherlands uses a dense railway network which connects nearly all major towns and cities. There are as many train stations as there are municipalities in the Netherlands. The network totals 3,223 route km (2,003 mi) on 6,830 kilometres (4,240 mi) of track; a line may run both ways, or two lines may run on major routes. Three-quarters of the lines have been electrified.
Eijsden railway station (Edn) is the railway station of Eijsden, Netherlands. It is the southernmost and the least used railway station in the Netherlands. The railway station is located on the railway line between Liège-Guillemins (Belgium) and Maastricht (Netherlands). Only trains of the National Railway Company of Belgium between the two stations call in Eijsden; Nederlandse Spoorwegen trains don't serve the station. It opened on 24 November 1861, and was closed between 10 December 2006 and 11 December 2011.
Maastricht railway station is located in Maastricht in Limburg, Netherlands. It is the main railway station in Limburg's capital city. It is the southern terminus of the Alkmaar–Maastricht intercity service by NS. Additionally, Arriva and the Belgian NMBS serve the station with local trains.
The Meuse–Rhine Euroregion is a Euroregion created in 1976, with judicial status achieved in 1991. It comprises 11.000 km2 and has around 3.9 million inhabitants around the city-corridor of Aachen–Maastricht–Hasselt–Liège. The seat of the region has been in Eupen, Belgium since 1 January 2007. Within a wider context, the region is part of what is called the Blue Banana European urbanisation corridor.
The history and presence of the Walloon people, i.e. francophone Belgians, in the Netherlands goes back to the foundation process of the Dutch state. Even more so, the region now known as Wallonia was part of the historical Southern Netherlands, a region now divided between the Netherlands, Belgium and the French Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
Beek is a town and municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, in the province of Limburg. As of 2012, Beek has a population of about 16,400, of which about 8,800 live in the town of Beek.
The Hasselt – Maastricht tramway was a proposed light rail system linking Hasselt, Belgian province of Limburg and Maastricht, Dutch province of Limburg. The project was part of the Spartacusplan of Belgian Limburg, proposed by the Belgian transport company De Lijn, with the aim of improving the province's transport links. The tramway's opening was originally scheduled for 2017, then postponed until 2025. It was finally cancelled on 10 June 2022 in favour of an electric "trambus".
The following is a timeline of the history of the municipality of Maastricht, Netherlands.
Hasselt-Maastricht railway is a railway track that goes from the Y-intersection Beverst with the Hasselt-Liège railway from Hasselt to Maastricht. The line is 17.2 km (10.7 mi) long.