Sittard–Herzogenrath railway

The Sittard–Herzogenrath railway is a railway line running from Sittard in the Netherlands to Herzogenrath in Germany, passing through Heerlen. The line was opened in 1896.

Sittard–Herzogenrath railway
Overview
Status	Operational
Locale	Germany and the Netherlands
Termini	Sittard railway station Herzogenrath station
Service
Operator(s)	Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Arriva
History
Opened	1896
Technical
Line length	29 km (18 mi)
Number of tracks	double track (Sittard–Landgraaf) single track (Landgraaf–Herzogenrath)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	1.5 kV DC (Sittard–border NL/D) 15 kV/16.7 Hz AC (border NL/D–Herzogenrath)
Operating speed	100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) (Sittard–Landgraaf) 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph) (Landgraaf–Herzogenrath)
Route map Legend Line from Roermond 0.0 Sittard Line to Maastricht 4.0 Geleen Oost 7.2 Spaubeek 9.1 Schinnen 11.9 Nuth 15.0 Hoensbroek from Maastricht 18.6 Heerlen 19.8 Heerlen de Kissel 21.8 Landgraaf to Kerkrade 24.5 Eygelshoven Markt 27.3 Netherlands / Germany Line from Mönchengladbach 28.7 Herzogenrath Line to Aachen

History

The line was nationalized in 1899. In World War II, cross-border passenger traffic was stopped on the line. In 1992, the first passenger trains began running on the line at 2-hour intervals as a City Express from Aachen to Heerlen. As the first real stage of the transnational regional rail system Euregiobahn in June 2001, the connection from Aachen to Heerlen via Herzogenrath was introduced. The train ran hourly from Heerlen to Stolberg.

Present

April 2014 marked the start of the electrification of the single-track railway from Landgraaf to Herzogenrath, which was completed at the end of 2018. On 27 January 2019 Arriva started a direct service between Aachen, Heerlen and Maastricht.^[1] Plans to extend this service from Maastricht to Liège (Belgium) have been delayed to 2022 or later.^[2]

The following train services on this track:

• Intercity IC 3500: Amsterdam Schiphol – Utrecht – Eindhoven – Heerlen
• Sneltrein RE 18: Aachen – Heerlen – Maastricht
• Stoptrein RS15: Sittard – Heerlen – Kerkrade

Stations

The main interchange stations on the Sittard–Herzogenrath railway are:

• Sittard: to Maastricht and Roermond
• Heerlen: to Maastricht
• Herzogenrath: to Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf and Aachen

Gallery

• 
  Station Sittard (2006)
• 
  Station Heerlen (2006)
• 
  Station Heerlen De Kissel (2008)
• 
  Station Landgraaf the right track direction Herzogenrath, left track direction Kerkrade. (2006)
• 
  Station Eygelshoven Markt (2011)
• 
  Bahnhof Herzogenrath (2012)

References

1. "Drielandentrein rijdt, maar voorlopig wel als tweelandentrein". NOS (in Dutch). 2019-01-27. Retrieved 2019-03-22.
2. "Drielandentrein in 2019 zeker niet meer door naar België". De Limburger (in Dutch). 2019-01-31. Retrieved 2019-03-22.