SNCF TGV Thalys PBKA
PBKA is a European railway project that will connect the cities of Paris, Brussels, Cologne and Amsterdam, with high-speed lines. The project is funded by the EU within the framework of the TEN initiative by the abbreviation PBKAL (Paris, Brussels, Cologne, Amsterdam, London).
History
On 18 July 1983 the Minister of Transport of Germany, France and Belgium gathered in Paris. On the edge of a conversation about the future prospects of the railway the possibility of a quick- Paris- Brussels-Cologne was discussed. A joint working group was asked to submit by April 1984 a report on the technical, economic, financial and legal aspects of such a route. 1984, the Netherlands joined the working group. Were examined three variations in wheel-rail and one in maglev technology.
The results were presented in the summer of 1984. Thus, the be ensured "economic and social benefits of such a connection." Subsequently, a working group was instructed to submit by the end of 1985 a deeper and optimized in several respects report. About 500 people were involved in the processing of the study. Later, the Netherlands occurred in the project; while Amsterdam was included in the network of corridors to be examined with. In the course of the investigations, a maglev was tested. The report was finally submitted in December 1986. Four variants were investigated.
1987 an international working group for the project was initiated by the City of Cologne.
On April 11, 1988 reaffirmed the participating in the high-speed railway project Paris-Brüssel-Köln/Amsterdam European transport ministers, the project including an extension to Frankfurt (today's high-speed line Cologne-Rhine/Main ) realize. The plans before saw to complete the expansion measures in Cologne -Aachen section to the start-up of Euro tunnel in 1993.
In November 1989, the Minister of Transport involved agreed on the schedule for commissioning the routes. For the section between Cologne and Aachen, the finalization was provided until 1995, the section between Aachen and Brussels should go into operation in 1998.
Operation
The new railway line from Paris to Brussels is completed for several years and is traveled by, among others, Thalys with up to 300 km / hr. The Belgian part of the track from Liege to Brussels via Aachen (HSL 2 and HSL 3) was completed by the end of 2007. Due to lack of equipment the ICE and Thalys trains with the ups applied at HSL train control, however, delayed commissioning of the section between Liège and Aachen on June 2009. For the ICE journey times between Aachen and Liege was shortened after commissioning of the HSL 3 of 47 minutes to 21 minutes. The Thalys is running on this route only since the timetable change in December 2009.
The German section of line between Aachen and Cologne is largely completed as cost-effective route expansion. Between Aachen and Langerwehe the route after the work is partially passable only with 140 or 160 km / h. In already developed distance between Cologne and part of Düren top speed of up to 250 km / h which is, however, only reached by ICE. The Thalys is running on this section with a maximum of 200 km / h because it has less than 15 kV in the German route network only around half of the power that he has in the supply of 25 kV in France or Belgium.