Moin, the Germans call this route the Weser valley line (Wesertalstrecke), the Belgians just Line 37: The world's first international rail line, connecting the Belgian city of Liège with Aachen, in Germany just past the border. Opened in 1843, its infratructure (stations, bridges, tunnels etc) presents itself today as a mix of brand new designs, structures dating back to the infancy of the railway itself, and anything in between. Other than historic significance and opening a new country, what would make this route nice to have in TSW: Well first there's the scenery. Beginning at Liège-Guillemins station - hyper modern, straight out of some futuristic science fiction movie, a work of maestro Calatrava - the route leaves the city eastbound and follows the Vesdre river much the same way that the Ruhr-Sieg line follows the Lenne river. Except with more tunnels. Lots more in fact. In this fashion, it makes it way to and through the next bigger city, namely Verviers. From here on the landscape gets a little more open. Next stop is Welkenraedt, where we have the choice to go one more stop to Eupen, or continue on the main line - now through rolling hills and fields - to Aachen. Short before which the mountains and and one last tunnel (namely Germany's oldest still in use) catch up to us again. Travelling in the opposite direction out of Verviers Central, we have the option to leave the mainline southward via the single-track branch to Spa, famous for it's racing circuit. As stated above, this is a very old line, and so is much of the rolling stock to this day. The majority of local trains is operated usind AM66 EMUs, built in 1966. Faster services utilize the AM80 from, surprise, 1980. The route also sees heavy usage by long distance trains, which are mostly locomotive-hauled trains hauled by modern class 13 or 18 locomotives. The only thing almost entirely abscent from this route that some people will probably miss is freight trains. If the service mode timetables are set either before the opening of the HSL3, or on a day it was closed for whatever reasons, we could drive high speed trains in the form of the Thalys through the valley though. According to my photo research for this thread, that seems to happen failry much. General Location: Belgium/Germany Era: ca. 2015 Length overall: 44 mi/71 km max speed: 85 mph/140 km/h # of passenger stations: 19 Service types: Commuter, Regional, InterCity # of tracks: 2 Electrified: Yes Lines included at least partially: Liége - Verviers - Aachen Welkenraedt - Eupen Pepinster - Spa Suitable vehicles (among others): SNCB AM66 SNCB AM80 SNCB Class 13 SNCB Class 18 SNCB M4, M6, I11 coaches (Thalys PBKA) Spoiler: Maps Maps Key Locations Liège-Guillemins Aachen Hbf Verviers Central Further Impressions Guillemins, Angleur Trooz unknown Fraipont Nessonvaux Pepinster Dolhain Welkenraedt Eupen near Hergenrath near Aachen Theux Franchimont Spa Spa-Géronstère
That would look like a very interesting route. Lovely idea and forces them to get new trains on it and hopefully a Intercity train too
