The Montzen Line is usually not used by passengers trains, but it is used as deviation from Liège to Welkenraedt in Belgium. In 2021, we had the opportunity to travel on Rail Line 24, it’s official name.

Okay, so actually the Montzen Line or Montzen Route is much longer. It’s a railway that connects the Port of Antwerp with Aachen in Germany via Aarschot, Hasselt, the Voer region and Montzen. The line reaches its highest point in the Gemmenich Tunnel (about 260 metres). In the run-up to this, the railway contains some steep slopes. 

As a result of these slopes, a locomotive could previously pull a maximum of 1100 tons; between Montzen and Aachen they even had to deploy an extra locomotive to get the whole thing over the slopes. From around 2010, the services will be provided by locomotives of the TRAXX type, which can pull heavier trains.

The decommissioned Iron Rhine route has a much flatter route, allowing freight trains with a load of up to 1800 tons. Compared to the Iron Rhine, the Montzen route is 50 km longer. For these two reasons, the Iron Rhine is more attractive for freight transport.

Line 24

We focused on Line 24. It actually starts in Tongeren and goes to Aachen, but we took a 5XX train between Liège-Guillemins and Welkenraedt. Some features are the Gemmenich Tunnel, the Moresnet Viaduct, the Pont des Allemands or Germans’ Bridge in Visé, the Remmersdaal Viaduct and the Sint-Martens-Voeren Viaduct.  

As such, Line 24 is not particularly scenic. We have dine much nicer scenic routes in Switzerland, in Taiwan, in the United Kingdom, in Spain, in Germany etc and even elsewhere in Belgium. 

But doing the Montzen Line was on our wish list, so we did. 

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