A train running between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany has been in planning for a few years. It was supposed to fully launch, between the cities of Liège, Maastricht and Aachen, respectively, in December 2023, but has been postponed to this summer.
Although the three governments and three different train operators agreed last year to a launch by December, the service had to be postponed due to “unforeseen technical challenges”. Dutch Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Vivianne Heijnen, has however confirmed the train, called LIMAX, will start operating on 9 June.
“Travellers will now have more destinations, more comfort and fully accessible trains across national borders”, Belgian Mobility Minister, Georges Gilkinet, said last year. “The fact that the different operators and the different political levels are working so well together for this purpose is a real step forward.”
The Aachen-Maastricht segment has been operational since 2019, however, for the Belgium section to go into service, the trains have to be equipped with the European Train Control System (ETCS). The ETCS is a tool required by the Belgian government to be installed on all trains travelling on the country’s territory, to monitor speeds and distances and ensure the limits are not exceeded.
Individual connections already exist between Liège and Maastricht, every hour, and between Maastricht and Aachen, every two hours, but the new LIMAX service will streamline travelling between the 3 cities, basically merging the existing connections. Thus, the large number of people commuting between the countries every day will have a easier, more reliable, direct alternative to choose, instead of changing trains in Maastricht.
The three-country train will run once every hour, ensuring both tourists and commuters have a regular schedule they can rely on. The introduction of the service also means that people living in the three cities will have easier access to international connections, for example to London or Berlin.
