IC 2974 from Maastricht to Eindhoven
There are two ways to go from the western Netherlands to eastern Belgium. Either you take the train via Eindhoven and Maastricht to Liege, or via Breda and Brussels. The first route mainly involves traveling in the Netherlands on Dutch rails, the other uses more of the Belgium network. Since the NS has announced works on the line between Maastricht and Eindhoven and consequently has canceled all trains there I decide to go via Brussels.
Platform at the station Den Haag HS. The height difference of about 1 cm is regarded as unsafe and therefore a fence was installed
I want to go to Liege for a couple of days. Some hours before departure I buy a ticket for the route via Brussels and load it onto the App of the NS. To be sure I also print it at home.
Waiting at the station of Rotterdam CS. The roof is full of solar panels to produce electricity for the trains
NS advises that customers check their connection before departing. And you better do. When I check mine, it turns out that the train from the Hague to Breda is canceled. Reasons are not given. Meanwhile NS also has decided to remove my ticket from the app. Fortunately I have the printed version. I take a later train which requires me to wait for another vhalf an hour in Rotterdam to take a direct train from there to Brussels. NS also manages to delay that train by letting it wait in the fields after having left Breda. Fortunately it catches up as soon as it has reached Belgian territory and is almost on time when arriving in Brussels.
One of the big advantages of taking the train is the rest you can get on the way. Theoretically. Next to me is more or less always some annoying little monster exercising his vocal cords. On the train to Brussels a girl of nine and her little brother sit on the bench close to me while her mother resides next to me. The girl torments the brother who screams in crescendo. Instead of placing the children apart, the mother tries to talk them into something good. She is unsuccessful with this until they finally leave the train in Mechelen.
Changeover at Brussels Nord
I only have a short break until I board the express to Liege in Brussels Nord. I have identified future tormentors already on the platform and deliberately selected a different coach. However, they seem to wander down the train until they find me. The child raises its voice in an attempt to attract the parents' attention. Traveling parents with children are too tired to intervene. Father has fallen asleep with untied shoelaces while mother peers at the shifting landscape in frustration. The children float around on a rudderless raft.
Art project at Liège-Guillemins station
Calatrava’s white swan floating above the trains in Liège-Guillemins station has been disfigured by some artists installation that has covered part of the windows in colored plastic foil. Where is the environmental awareness when all this plastic has to be disposed of afterwards? The army of homeless guarding the short walk to my hotel would have appreciated the money spent on this artistic statement to improve their fate by investing into even more drugs. When I open my hotel room I not only have a view across the station building but also over a lawn behind a hedge where those poor devils have set up a temporary camp by recycling some old handicapped plastic chairs, cardboard boxes and other still useful rubbish. At daytime, when the place is deserted, it serves as toilet for pissing men. I refrain from having a drink on the terrace of one of the establishments facing the station. I feel too embarrassed to spend my money for useless luxury while they file by to get a little hand-out.
Liège-Guillemins station from the hotel window. On the lawn to the right the refuge of the homeless
Notwithstanding its difficult topography Liège had an extensive network of tram lines. Early on some of the lines were replaced by trolley buses. The last tram line was closed down in 1968, the last trolley bus line in 1971. The replacement were buses, but in first place, the idea of an unlimited access for the car driver.
Motrice 43 is the oldest preserved tram in Belgium
Motrice 114 called "the Nüremberg" was built in 1908 by MAN in Nuremberg
Motrice 193 of 1930
With ease of access for men on four wheels the city hoped to halt its decline caused by the disappearance of heavy industry. The Equerre group, an architecture and urban planning firm, was responsible for proposals of a development which basically sacrificed all urban obstacles to traffic circulation improvements. Motorways were built along the riverfront, big intersections cut into the historic architectural structure. Public transport played a minor role in such plans, trams were just another obstacle. The city became a big bypass. Without knowing it, Le Corbusier became a symbol in Liège.
Trolleybuses. 402 has 3 axles and driver's seat on both ends to go backward and forward under the same conditions
These brutal and undemocratic plans favoring the car owners already caused rising protests in the 1970s. It got a boost when the 1973 oil crises demonstrated for the first time that the cheap resources on which this philosophy of traffic management and town planning was based, were not without limits. Traffic congestion and the emergence of ecological awareness increased the doubts about the plans of the 1960’s. In a long struggle lasting until 1985 the plans were modified. Liège starts a program called “Liége retrouve son fleuve”. Parks are created along the river bank and cycle paths allow crossing the city without being squashed. The traffic is still murderous, but there are improvements.
Building of the new tram line in front of station Liège-Guillemins
And now, 50 years later, they are busy tearing open a big part of the center of Liège to built a new, 11 km long tram line.
Map of the rail network in Belgium in 1919. Secondary lines are in red
The whole story is told by the Museum of Public Transport in Wallonia. Set up in an old tram depot it recalls the history of public transport not only in Liège but also in the countryside. Next to the state railways SNCB, Belgium was crisscrossed by a network of branch line trains called the SNCV. Already in 1894, this network operated lines with a length of 1340 kilometer. At its height, after the second world war, 4769 km of branch lines were in service. In 1965 this had shrunk to 562 km.
Comfort of traveling a hundred years ago
On Monday the works on the Maastricht to Eindhoven line are finished and the app of NS announces that train travel is back to normal. I buy and load down a ticket from Liège to Maastricht which again disappears shortly after being loaded. Fortunately I have made a screenshot because a reload is not possible. After Maastricht I can use the OV chip kaart, the dutch card to use all public transport.
New construction including a gas station planted into the historic center
Cars in front of the episcopal palace in Liège. After the construction of the tram is finished this will become a space for pedestrians and cyclists
Once in Maastricht it turns out that the works on the line to Eindhoven unexpectedly are not finished. The line is still closed between Roermond and Weert, a distance normally covered by the train in 15 minutes. The app suggests to travel via Venlo. Since the line from Roermond to Venlo is not operated by NS, but by Arriva, the traveler has to check out with his OV chip kaart from NS in Roermond and check in on a different reader for Arriva. There are two minutes changeover time in Roermond. Once arrived in Venlo, the same process has to be repeated in opposite direction. Of course there are not enough readers when an entire train discharges at the same time. And you have to find them.
Train for Maastricht ready to depart in Liège-Guillemins
On the train they announce that there is a replacement bus from Roermond to Weert. Unfortunately the announcement is disrupted and so nobody can hear where the bus actually stops. When the train arrives in Roermond I follow the flow of people down the stairs and to the right, where more stairs lead up to another platform. I look out for the readers to check out and in with my card. There are none here. The connecting train of Arriva waits at the end of the platform in a position where any connecting traveler has the longest possible distance to walk from an incoming train of NS. I decide to take the bus. On my way back down the stairs I encounter those with heavy trolley suitcases. Worthless on the stairs, the heave their load up with red faces and loud curses.
Maastricht station
There is nobody here to give information where the buses leave. To get to the bus station more stairs have to be overcome. There is no help, people rush to get the bus. I help a woman with a baby in a big stroller trying to get down. Most of the buses at the platform bear the number 999 “out of service”. None has a sign “NS”, or “Weert”. I ask a driver and eventually find the right bus. It already is almost full. After me a guy sits down on my side and fills the air with cold cigarette smoke.
The bus trip to Weert takes much longer than the train ride. The loudspeakers broadcast the worst music and stupid comments of the worst of the many Dutch radio stations. To have to listen to this medley of crazy laughter and meaningless babble doesn’t make the ride shorter.
Eventually we arrive at the scenic and monumental railway station of Weert. The content of the bus pours out into the entrance hall. There is a departure board. All the trains on the sign, both in direction of Roermond and Maastricht, as well as Eindhoven, are cancelled. Can it be possible that NS ferries travelers by bus to a station where they do not have a connecting train? There is nobody to ask.
Screen announcing that all trains in Weert are cancelled
Everyone stands puzzled on the platform. A woman calls the emergency phone. The guy at the other end of the line does not have more information than what is to be had in the railplanner of NS. It is five past eight The next scheduled train to Eindhoven at 20.16 is cancelled. There is another one at 20.46, which might run. There are the odd announcements telling people that the trains do not run. They are barely understandable since the loudspeakers are not loud enough. The first group of people drift back to the buses, to go back to Roermond.
Suddenly a lot of people come walking down the platform from the direction of Eindhoven. Looks like they just stepped off an oncoming train. The others don't notice anything, but I walk to the end of the platform, where there is indeed a train. They have stopped it at the end of the platform so that nobody can see it. A sign says "do not board".
Train hidden at the end of the platform in Weert. Arriving passengers had to walk all the way to the center so that passengers willing to depart don't realize that there actually is a train
The engine driver stretches his legs. I ask where he's going. He says he's going back to Eindhoven, but he can't take anyone with him. .....
The billboards at the platform proclaim that every Dutch station has an AED. There also one that announces that the Dutch railways support 2500 projects to make their stations greener. They do not think about the simple convenience of a toilet. Every station used to have one. Or are the green projects meant to …..?!?
Eventually, after half an hour of waiting, an IC train arrives from direction Eindhoven. There are no further announcements, but people do not wait and board. Better to be inside before they close the doors.
Liege's most famous citizen: George Simenon only lived here until the age of 19 but was attached enough to his hometown that he came back here to marry his first and second wife in the city hall in 1923 and 1952
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