Liège-Guillemins railway station
Encyclopedia
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
is the main station of the city of Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
, the third biggest city in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. It is one of the most important hubs in the country and is one of the 3 Belgian stations on the high-speed rail
High-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...
network. The station is used by 36,000 people every day.
History
In 1838, only three years after the first continental railway, a line linking BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and Ans
Ans
Ans is a small Belgian municipality located in the Walloon province of Liège. On January 1, 2006 Ans had a total population of 27,322. The total area is 23.35 km² which gives a population density of 1,170 inhabitants per km²...
, in the northern suburbs of Liège, was opened. The first train station of Liège-Guillemins was inaugurated in May 1842, linking the valley to the upper Ans station.
In 1843, the first international railway connection was born, linking Liège to Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
and Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
.
The station was modernized and improved in 1882 and in 1905 for the World Fair
Liège International (1905)
Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Liège was a world's fair held in Liège in 1905 from April 27 to November 6 just 8 years after a Belgian exposition held in Brussels...
in Liège.
This station was replaced in 1958 by a modern (for that time) one that was used until June 2009, a few months before the opening of the new Calatrava designed station.
New station
The new station by the architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Santiago Calatrava
Santiago Calatrava
Santiago Calatrava Valls is a Spanish architect, sculptor and structural engineer whose principal office is in Zürich, Switzerland. Classed now among the elite designers of the world, he has offices in Zürich, Paris, Valencia, and New York City....
was officially opened on September 18, 2009 with a show by Franco Dragone
Franco Dragone
Franco Dragone is a Italian-Belgian theatre director. He is known for his work with Cirque du Soleil.-Early life:Dragone was born in Cairano, Italy, and moved to La Louvière, Belgium at age seven. In the 1970s, he studied theatre at the Belgian Royal Conservatory of Mons...
.
It has 9 tracks and 5 platforms (three of 450m and two of 350m). All the tracks around the station have been modernized to allow high speed arrival and departure.
The new station is made of steel, glass and white concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
. It includes a monumental arch
Arch
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
, 200 metres long and 35 metres high.
The building costs were € 312 million.
Train services
Liège-Guillemins station is served by InterCity- and InterRegio trains, connecting Liège with all major Belgien cities, as well as several international destinations such as AachenAachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
, Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
, and Maastricht
Maastricht
Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...
. In addition to the national traffic, Liège-Guillemins station welcomes Thalys
Thalys
Thalys is an international high-speed train operator originally built around the high-speed line between Paris and Brussels. This track is shared with Eurostar trains that go from Paris or Brussels to London via Lille and the Channel Tunnel and with French domestic TGV trains. Thalys reaches...
and ICE
InterCityExpress
The Intercity-Express or ICE is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany and neighbouring countries. It is the highest service category offered by DB Fernverkehr and is the flagship of Deutsche Bahn...
trains, connecting Liège to Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
, Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, and Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
. Two new dedicated high-speed tracks have been built: HSL 2
HSL 2
The HSL 2 is a Belgian high-speed rail line between Leuven and Ans. long, all of it dedicated high-speed tracks, it began service on 15 December 2002. As a part of the Belgian railway network, its formal owner is the Railway Infrastructure Fund...
(Brussels-Liège) and HSL 3
HSL 3
The HSL 3 is a Belgian high-speed rail line. It connects Liège to the German border near Aachen. The line is long, of which are dedicated high-speed tracks....
(Liège-German border).
There are also plans for Eurostar
Eurostar
Eurostar is a high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between England and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel....
and ICE to link Liège to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
directly.
The national trains to Brussels also use the high speed track at 200 km/h, while the Thalys and ICE can go up to 300 km/h.
Road Connections
Liège-Guillemins is also a transportation hub for TECTEC (transport)
Société Régionale Wallonne du Transport , is responsible for the supervision, strategic planning and marketing of a group of five regional public transport companies branded as TEC or "Transport En Commun" in Wallonia, Belgium. It is primarily a bus operator, but also operates the Charleroi tram...
Bus: more than 1,620 buses carrying 15,000 people serve the station everyday. It is one of the rare train stations in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
directly connected to the highway network (E40
European route E40
European route E 40 is the longest European route, more than long, connecting Calais in France via Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan, with Ridder in Kazakhstan near the border to China....
-E25
European route E25
European route E 25 is a north-south European route from Hoek van Holland in the Netherlands to Palermo in Italy which includes ferry crossings from Genoa to Bastia , from Bonifacio to Porto Torres and from Cagliari to Palermo .It passes through the following cities:Hoek van Holland –...
).
See also
- National Railway Company of Belgium
- Rail transport in BelgiumRail transport in BelgiumBelgium has an extensive rail network. It is a member of the International Union of Railways . The UIC Country Code for Belgium is 88.-History:...
- High-speed rail in BelgiumHigh-speed rail in BelgiumBelgium has a high-speed rail network providing mostly international connections from Brussels to France, Germany and The Netherlands. The high-speed network began with the opening of the HSL 1 to France in 1997, since then high-speed lines have been expanded towards Germany with HSL 2 in 2002, HSL...
- List of TGV stations