The line
Maastricht-Hasselt
was constructed by the Aachen-Maastrichts-Railroad Association and
opened Oct. 1, 1856.
From 1867 the line Hasselt-Maastricht was operated by the Grand
Central Belge; on July 1, 1900 it was nationalised.
The section
Beverst-Lanaken was
closed down in 1992.
The bordercrossing section already in 1990. The constructional works are
mostly kept intact, but the track itself is in decay. Randomly the
railtracks were just demolished and the whole line is overgrown with young
trees and bushes. While in the last 18 years nature could have its course on
this section of the railway, it became a biotope for the
wall-lizard, the
viviparous lizard and the
blindworm. To keep the biotope
intact special measures will be taken.
A part of the former line,
namely the
6 km long connection Maastricht-Lanaken
will be reinstated in 2009 on behalf of the freight-traffic of the Firm Sappi
and the bordercrossing industrial park "Europark".
With this 24,5 Million Euro is involved, partly financed by the EU.
On dutch territory ProRail is in charge and Strukton Railinfra
the building supervisor. At
ProRail you can download brochures.
At the same time the flamish
government is pushing to reanimate the railway until Hasselt in the
Spartacusplan. At the dutch side until now one was not very interested,
but the Maastricht municipal now signed a
intention-agreement to investigate the feasibility of a lightrail-connection,
which should be operable in 2012. On the next pages you find the progress of
the works on the section
Maastricht-Lanaken
as recorded by H. Eversteijn.
