Cross-border commuting and the Tri-Country Train

Traveling by train across countries has been getting a lot easier, especially within central Europe where everything is a bit closer together.¹ We’ve got the Thalys (now Eurostar) doing 12 trips a day from Amsterdam to Paris through Brussels, and the actual Eurostar doing 4 trips a day from Amsterdam to London, via Brussels and Lille. There are also other relatively good frequency and direct services to larger cities at high speed. Similarly, for slower travelers at longer distances, there is the European Sleeper operating night trains between Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and most recently the Czech Republic three times a week. The travel times here are longer than on a high-speed connection but you’re passing through many more cities along the way. The general idea is also that you’d have a good night’s rest throughout the journey. In this same category, OBB operates its nightjet service to many locations, like Zurich to Amsterdam, via Cologne and Dusseldorf, or from Munich to Rome.

These are train trips you might take on holiday, to visit family and friends, work at a remote office, or attend conferences and trade shows—all things you may not be doing on a daily or regular basis. However, there are cross-border trains such as the hourly service between Venlo and the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) or in addition to the Thalys, the Intercity Brussels service between Amsterdam and Brussels South up to 16 times a day that regular commuters can take across borders.

The Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS)² estimates that over 80 thousand cross-border commuters travel to the Netherlands per day from Belgium and Germany. Bear in mind these figures are from 2018 and would most definitely have been influenced by the pandemic. In many cases organizations permitted a hybrid approach where legally allowed. Many of these employees live in towns close to the border. The second Belgian municipality ranked by most cross-border commuters to the Netherlands, Voeren, and coincidentally also the second German municipality of inbound Dutch commuters, Selfkant, both border Zuid-Limburg.The Dutch province of Zuid-Limburg has the highest percentage of employees living in Germany or Belgium compared to other provinces in the Netherlands. This brings us to the focal point of the post, the Drielandentrein (Tri-Country Train).

In Zuid-Limburg in 2018, the service between Heerlen and Herzogenrath was operated by Arriva and with the introduction of the then new timetable in December the plans were to extend this past Herzogenrath to Aachen in Germany and in the other direction past Heerlen to Maastricht. From January 2019 onwards the Arriva RE18 ran a regular service between Aachen, Heerlen and Maastricht, this replaced the Aachen to Heerlen train by Euregiobahn. The ground work for this service was done by doubling the tracks between Heerlen and Landgraaf and electrifying the line from Landgraaf to Herzogenrath along with works at the Herzogenrath station itself. At this point in time it was already dubbed the Drielandentrein, as it was to eventually connect to Luik in Belgium to Maastricht and Aachen.

If you are traveling across the border you are permitted to check-in and out with your Dutch OV chipkaart making this a seamless and direct journey or so I thought. The OV Chipkaart is only valid as it was previously between Herzogenrath and Aachen. The tickets prices and card readers have not been sorted out yet on the Belgian side of the border.

To run the service Arriva uses tri-current Stadler FLIRT-III’s capable of switching to 15kV 16.7Hz in Germany, 1.5Kv in the Netherlands, and 3Kv in Belgium. The switching to 3Kv is done between Maastricht Randwyck and Eijsden in the Netherlands before crossing the border. However, the trains could not run in Belgium yet as they had to be equipped with ETCS. The first train from the fleet was fitted with ETCS and tests were carried out in 2022. Over the next few years all eight FLIRT trains will be equipped by Stadler with its ETCS system called GUARDIA.

For the time being this meant commuters would have to switch at Maastricht to the S43 service run by NMBS to Luik. However, now it’s 2024 and the Drielandentrein is finally here! As of 9 June 2024, the RE18 Tri-Country Train will continue towards Belgium, replacing the existing S43 service. The Dutch State Secretary of Infrastructure was quoted by RailwayPro, saying to the House of Representatives:

I am pleased that the carriers involved, Arriva, NS, and NMBS, have announced that this rail service will be introduced on the railways on 9 June 2024. This means that the train change at Maastricht to and from Liège will become a thing of the past.

This means the Arriva-operated RE18 service will replace the hourly S43 service run by NMBS currently using MS80 rolling stock. The Drielandedtrein will be an hourly service connecting Luik, Maastricht, and Aachen, hopefully making it even easier for cross-border commuters in the region. The plan is to also allow check-in and out via the Dutch OV-chipkaart in Luik unifying the fare.

This was the plan at least until the heavy rains in the region at the start of May. Temporary housing was set up, highways were closed and rail traffic halted as the flood waters rose, very reminiscent of the 2021 flood in the same area. From 18 May all train traffic from Maastricht Randwyck and Visé in Belgium was paused. According to Treinenweb works on the Dutch side of the border are complete but tracks still need to be replaced on the Belgian side. For now, NMBS runs buses between Wezet and Maastricht, the travel planner also states that train traffic is expected to resume from 17 June onwards.³ Further tests need to be done with the ETCS Tri-Country trains before passengers will be allowed, the tentative date for this is 30 June according to RTV Maastricht.⁴ If the tracks open up again on 17 June we can expect the old MS80 rolling from NMBS to be used.

Update 2024-11-10: Added header image and author tag.