Aachen - Maastricht - Liege three-country RE18

[NCT]

I've had a go on this service a couple of times the last two days.

First observation is that the Maastricht - Liege portion is still operated by SNCB units. Is this meant to be a temporary arrangements and Arriva Flirts are meant to operate through? Does anyone know if there are any through diagrams already in operation?

On the two days I wanted to try the service the performance was a disaster. I can't quite work out whether the problems were RE18's own or they just get shafted by perennial German delays. Yesterday I wanted the 1647 from Aachen - it was only announced as cancelled very close to departure time. Then the 1717 eventually turned up and left 15 minutes late to then be terminated at Heerlen. The 1747 ex Aachen also didn't run because the unit wasn't in the right place from earlier delays. Certainly had the RE18s ran into Aachen on time they'd have been shafted by all the late-running German trains occupying platforms at all the wrong times. To make matters worse the Stoptrein everyone was direct to from Heerlen to Maastricht didn't have working air-con.

Is this the normal order of the day?

As an aside (as it's my thread I'll define permissible thread drift), Belgian trains really are leisurely. The old EMUs working the Maastricht - Liege take an age to get going - our 172s and 195s would leave them in the dust. I also had the pleasure of the S41 between Liege and Aachen - an S-bahn service worked with intercity coaching stock. It was a brilliantly scenic ride but my goodness the amount of time that could be saved if the service could be timed to SNCB's Desiro Mainline performance.

 

[Full Standing]

The use of SNCB units between Maastricht and Liège is supposed to be temporary (from July 1, 03:00 until July 3, 03:00). Apparently, multiple FLIRTs need to be repaired at the same time. I don't have more info though. The information is taken from AVV's journey planner (AVV stands for Aachener Verkehrsverbund).

Train cancellations and delays on this line are the norm unfortunately. I just had a look at the real-time information and today's 20:17 service from Aachen to Liège terminates at Heerlen for no clear reason. I don't live in Aachen, but I have a couple of friends there and they told me that the service is an unprecedented disaster. The last time I wanted to use this service was last December and I needed to catch the last train of the day from Liège to Aachen. Cancelled due to lack of train crew...

There were also plenty of delays in setting up the line at all. I think Belgium insisted on ETCS (European Train Control System) which was not initially accounted for, delaying the inauguration of the Maastricht - Liège stretch by several years. Direct trains bewteen Liège and Aachen finally started running on June 30, 2024 [1]. On January 27, 2019, the trains between Aachen and Maastricht entered service [2]. This is also when the FLIRTs were introduced. Prior to that, there was an hourly shuttle with DIesel trains between Herzogenrath and Heerlen for a couple of years.

Yes, S41 rides along a stunning route, and the coaches are very nice. Unfortunately, the journey from Luxembourg to Aachen (via Gouvy), which I did quite frequently when I lived in the area, takes about 30 minutes longer with the new-ish S41 and you have to change at Angleur instead of Liège-Guillemins. Btw, in my opinion Luxembourg - Liège is even more stunning

(Sorry for the bad wording, I'm a bit in a hurry right now...)

[1] https://avv.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten/dreilaenderzug-startet-am-30-juni
[2] https://avv.de/de/aktuelles/neuigke...richt-neue-stuendliche-direktverbindung-30363

 

[NCT]

The use of SNCB units between Maastricht and Liège is supposed to be temporary (from July 1, 03:00 until July 3, 03:00). Apparently, multiple FLIRTs need to be repaired at the same time. I don't have more info though. The information is taken from AVV's journey planner (AVV stands for Aachener Verkehrsverbund).

Train cancellations and delays on this line are the norm unfortunately. I just had a look at the real-time information and today's 20:17 service from Aachen to Liège terminates at Heerlen for no clear reason. I don't live in Aachen, but I have a couple of friends there and they told me that the service is an unprecedented disaster. The last time I wanted to use this service was last December and I needed to catch the last train of the day from Liège to Aachen. Cancelled due to lack of train crew...

There were also plenty of delays in setting up the line at all. I think Belgium insisted on ETCS (European Train Control System) which was not initially accounted for, delaying the inauguration of the Maastricht - Liège stretch by several years. Direct trains bewteen Liège and Aachen finally started running on June 30, 2024 [1]. On January 27, 2019, the trains between Aachen and Maastricht entered service [2]. This is also when the FLIRTs were introduced. Prior to that, there was an hourly shuttle with DIesel trains between Herzogenrath and Heerlen for a couple of years.

Yes, S41 rides along a stunning route, and the coaches are very nice. Unfortunately, the journey from Luxembourg to Aachen (via Gouvy), which I did quite frequently when I lived in the area, takes about 30 minutes longer with the new-ish S41 and you have to change at Angleur instead of Liège-Guillemins. Btw, in my opinion Luxembourg - Liège is even more stunning

(Sorry for the bad wording, I'm a bit in a hurry right now...)

[1] https://avv.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten/dreilaenderzug-startet-am-30-juni
[2] https://avv.de/de/aktuelles/neuigke...richt-neue-stuendliche-direktverbindung-30363

Thanks for the response!

Would you happen to know if the Maastricht - Liege part of the schedule was altered at all? Even with the sluggish acceleration of the Belgian EMUs my service was on time throughout.

 

[Full Standing]

According to the (regular) timetable [1], the trains are supposed to depart from Liège at XX:08 and arrive in Maastricht at XX:43, apart from a few exceptions. They then wait for 9 minutes in Maastricht before heading off to Aachen at XX:52. Unfortunately, I can't find the times of the replacement train. But I do know the following: Today's 20:08 (replacement) service from Liège to Maastricht left Liège with a 1 minute delay (i.e. at 20:09) and arrived at Maastricht on time (i.e. at 20:43) (according to SNCB's journey planner available at www.belgiantrain.be). So apparently the schedule wasn't modified at all.

[1] https://avv.de/files/avv/files/fahrplaene/linienfahrplaene/Bahnlinien/re18_arriva.pdf

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Jul 2025 ==

Thanks for the response!

You're very welcome.

 

[dutchflyer]

On the Belgian end-the new now by ARRIVA is the norm-was myself surprised to read this very temporary replacement-did not know about it. Have travelled over it a few times this year.
On the German end-the major reason for many cancellations is the lack of drivers who have the necessary permits to work in 2 countries, the promised half-hourly service quite often turns to hourly. Best soruce for info-not TOO far advance!! is zuginfo.nrw

 

[Bikeman78]

As an aside (as it's my thread I'll define permissible thread drift), Belgian trains really are leisurely. The old EMUs working the Maastricht - Liege take an age to get going - our 172s and 195s would leave them in the dust. I also had the pleasure of the S41 between Liege and Aachen - an S-bahn service worked with intercity coaching stock. It was a brilliantly scenic ride but my goodness the amount of time that could be saved if the service could be timed to SNCB's Desiro Mainline performance.

I guess the Belgian unit was a 1980s Break unit (type AM80 break unit into Google)? It varies a bit depending on the driver but they don't usually hang about. Don't forget that they will crawl out of Maastricht as they are on half voltage on the Dutch railways. Originally they were two cars and must have gone like greased lightning. The centre trailers were added in the late 1980s.

 

[NCT]

I guess the Belgian unit was a 1980s Break unit (type AM80 break unit into Google)? It varies a bit depending on the driver but they don't usually hang about. Don't forget that they will crawl out of Maastricht as they are on half voltage on the Dutch railways. Originally they were two cars and must have gone like greased lightning. The centre trailers were added in the late 1980s.

Yes, it was an AM80. Had the same unit again for Antwerp - Leuven (weekend allocation) and pullaway still seemed sluggish - certainly compared to our Class 455, say. It might be because these are geared for 160km/h running?

New new Desiro Mainline sets accelerate noticeably better.

 

[MarcVD]

New new Desiro Mainline sets accelerate noticeably better.

Not a surprise. AM80 break is approx 9 kW/ton while AM08 desiro is more than 14... AM breaks were designed for all kind of services and had a suitable kW/ton ratio for that as built, but the addition of the intermediate carriage made it suitable for intercity services only. Now they finish their life in suburban work but of course performance are not comparable with current suburban rolling stock.