Viersen–Venlo railway

The railway line Viersen -Venlo is a railway line in Germany and the Netherlands. It runs from Viersen on Kaldenkirchen to Venlo ( NL) and is now partially electrified double-track and continuous.

History

The railway line was built by the Bergisch- Märkischen Railway Company (BME ) following their railway Ruhrort -Mönchengladbach, which she had acquired on January 1, 1866, together with the Ruhr place - Crefeld circle Gladbach Railway Company.

The first section from Viersen to Kaldenkirchen was opened to traffic on January 29, 1866 on October 29, 1866 followed by the second section from Kaldenkirchen to Venlo.

Parallel to this part built the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft ( RhE ) has its own stretch of Kempen Kaldenkirchen to Venlo, which she opened on 23 December 1867. Their main track between Kaldenkirchen and Venlo is used since the closure of the Rhine route as a regular second track of the Brandenburg line. Between Dülken and Kaldenkirchen the track for a distance of about 12 kilometers, is only single track.

On May 22, 1968, the installation of the overhead line was completed on complete length of the route.

The track was previously used in the international long-distance traffic, including through D trains to Hoek van Holland and the Rhine gold.

Current situation

Since 1919, there are always the requirement to expand the double track railway line along its entire length, as well as from Venlo via Eindhoven and Tilburg to Breda ( and on to Rotterdam or London). The Treaty of Versailles forbade this explicitly, because France would not tolerate any new direct east-west connections. Even after the Second World War was the expansion to this day.

The " Viersener triangle" is not really a triangle, but a Ypsilon: a track connection between Krefeld and Venlo is missing. On Viersener railway station coming from the south route is divided into two branches: one to Venlo ( northwest ) and one to Krefeld ( north- east). Trains from the Netherlands on their way to the Ruhr region via Krefeld must make in Viersen head. There are in Viersen the fear that the noise levels would be even higher by the rail traffic after the construction of the third track. There is a finished track plan route, the area is owned by the railway, on the surface is a Baubann (ie there may only be a track to be built ). Until the 1980s Viersen had a large marshalling yard, where freight trains from the Netherlands ( Rotterdam - seaports ) disassembled and reassembled were ( unit train => single waggon). Since about 2010, parts of the embankment in Viersen noise barriers on both sides of the double track area.

Over the decades there have been changing the factors that contributed to a non- expansion of Viersener triangle:

• Time, the German Federal Railways and DB Netz AG had no interest for her freight tonne- kilometers of the Netherlands paid for itself twice to Germany via Venlo not because route is mostly situated on Dutch territory, and thus go revenue also largely to the Dutch network operator ProRail;
• The competition route Rotterdam - Emmerich - Oberhausen ( Oberhausen- Arnhem and see Arnhem -Amsterdam ), however, a three-pronged expanded and considerably longer on German territory - which raises revenue for the DB Netz AG.
• The good development of the A 61 is a (too) strong competition for the approximately parallel railway line to the south.

Various factors have contributed to making rail transport more attractive since about 1990:

• Fuel prices ( especially for trucks diesel prices ) have risen sharply
• Trucks pay since January 1, 2005 on German motorways toll (see truck toll in Germany ). Ten years earlier, in 1995, was previously introduced with the Euro vignette in the Netherlands, a truck toll.
• Come into the North Sea ports in the wake of globalization much more container than before - especially from Asia - at. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain also take the eastern part of Germany's neighbors in world trade; transit through Germany has increased.

Since autumn 2012, the Chamber of Commerce Dusseldorf and the Dutch authority Eindhoven demand the twin-track development of the so-called "bottle- neck " and thus a continuous east-west connection to Dusseldorf via Mönchengladbach. Thus, Brabant Midden Limburg and were connected with a quick connection to Dusseldorf. Just the airport Dusseldorf is a brilliant reason. The private railway companies Keolis operates with wings railcars for some time a very powerful and convenient operation of Venlo on Viersen, Dusseldorf and Monchengladbach to Hamm.

There was, also in the course of discussions about the Iron Rhine and the Viersener curve, often considerations to build the second track. In July 2011, it was said that the expansion was ' far away '. The Rheinische Post commented:

"There is a stretch on the Lower Rhine, the comparatively little money, einbrächte an enormous (macro - ) economic return for decades. Upgrading of the Kaldenkirchen - Venlo would bring more goods and more people to rail and promoted both long-distance and local transport. It is inconceivable that neither in Dusseldorf still in Berlin shows someone really interested in this investment. The Lower Rhine falls to the level of a zone boundary area, as far as the railway. "

Alexander Kirfel (Managing Director ' Network of European Railways ') wrote the remaining 13 plus 3 km devastating [n ] consequences for the capacity of the route and the operating quality and pointed out that there are over 20 overloaded web sections in North Rhine -Westphalia (and growing ).

In October 2011, the City Council Nettetal has therefore adopted a resolution that strongly calls for a doubling of the previously single-track bottleneck between Dülken and Kaldenkirchen.

In March 2012, the Viersener Mayor Günter Thönnessen called for an expansion of the bottleneck. German Transport Minister Ramsauer is the process of establishing the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan 2015. Therefore, representatives from the district of Viersen, the Venlo region and the province of Limburg and the members of the Bundestag Uwe Schummer, Dr. Günter Krings and Ansgar Heveling spoke in February 2012 with Ramsauer.

A presented in January 2013 study by the RoCK project concludes that a doubling of the track would cost around € 42 million and would have a benefit -cost ratio of 17.7. Among other things, the expansion could be a shift of about 240,000 km / day to about 2.8 million tonnes / year effect. At the same time the travel times between Eindhoven and Dusseldorf would be considerably reduced.

Further south there are between Reydt and Odenkirchen also a single track (but with three kilometers considerably shorter ) bottleneck ( railway Reydt -Cologne- Ehrenfeld ). The costs for the expansion of both sections are estimated at a total of nearly 50 million euros.

In March 2013 it was announced that the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Transport Michael Groschek wants the bottleneck between Dülken and Kaldenkirchen register for the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan.

According to a press release ( September 2013 ) called Anak Ferlemann, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport, the elimination of this bottleneck as "very obvious ". According to a study of the project initiative RoCK (Regions of Connected Knowledge ), the benefits of distance 17.7 times greater than their costs.

Traffic

Today runs in the regular passenger on this route, only the Regional-Express line RE 13 (Maas - Wupper - Express) and a pair of trains of RE 8 ( Kaldenkirchen - Köln Messe / Deutz ) that stop at every station on the route. The operation is done every hour since December 13, 2009 as scheduled by the euro rail. This Keolis subsidiary took over the operation on the RE 13 for 16 years and is on the whole path of a modern electric trains of the type Flirt by Stadler Rail. Prior to the subsidiary DB Regio NRW sailed Deutsche Bahn this track with a locomotive-hauled push-pull train from DB Class 111 and five n- trolleys ( former pieces of silver ). Due to lack of approvals of the German and Dutch regulatory authorities replacement services were run with the described DB - sets between Mönchengladbach and Venlo. In the meantime, the commuted Flirt railcar only way to Kaldenkirchen and were supplemented by a short shuttle from the 111 series with three n- cars to Venlo. Since end of July 2010 commute until further four-part Flirt trains between Venlo and Mönchengladbach and between Mönchengladbach and Hamm five-part Flirt trains the euro rail.

The route is also used by many freight trains between Germany and the Netherlands and Belgium. She was in a different part of variants discussed alternative routes to the Iron Rhine, of which, however, does not prevailed. In particular, the fact that trains have to change direction to the Ruhr in Viersen, played a role. The missing link between the short distance Viersen -Venlo and the track Viersen -Krefeld is discussed for decades as Viersener curve and require or for the purpose of noise rejected.

In long-distance transport, the route is occasionally used as a redirection of ICE trains between the Netherlands and Germany, when the railway line Oberhausen- Arnhem is locked. In this case, the ICE of Utrecht, Eindhoven and Venlo drive over to Viersen and further over the rail lines Ruhrort -Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach and Cologne to Cologne Central Station. From there they run back to the regular line path. In this case, keep the ICE train station in Venlo and Mönchengladbach at the main train station.