Liège-Guillemins railway station

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Coordinates: 50°37′26″N 5°34′01″E / 50.624°N 5.567°E / 50.624; 5.567

The station

The station in 1905

The station in the 1970s

Liège-Guillemins train station is the main station of the city of Liège, the third biggest city in Belgium. It is one of the most important hubs in the country and is one of the 3 Belgian stations on the high-speed rail network. The station is used by 36,000 people every day.

[edit] History

In 1838, only three years after the first continental railway, a line linking Brussels and Ans, 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 and Cologne.

The station was modernized and improved in 1882 and in 1905 for the World Fair 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.

[edit] New station

The new station by the architect Santiago Calatrava was officially opened on September 18, 2009 with a show by Franco Dragone. 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. It includes a monumental arch, 160 metres long and 32 metres high. The building costs were € 312 million.

The station in September 2008

[edit] 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 Aachen, Lille, and Maastricht. In addition to the national traffic, Liège-Guillemins station welcomes Thalys and ICE trains, connecting Liège to Brussels, Paris, Aachen, Cologne, and Frankfurt. Two new dedicated high-speed tracks have been built: HSL 2 (Brussels-Liège) and HSL 3 (Liège-German border).

There are also plans for Eurostar and ICE to link Liège to London directly.^{[citation needed]}

Preceding station	Thalys	Following station
Brussels-South toward Paris-Nord	Thalys	Aachen Hbf toward Essen Hbf
Namur toward Paris-Nord	Thalys	Terminus
Preceding station	Deutsche Bahn	Following station
Bruxelles-Nord / Brussel-Noord toward Bruxelles-Midi	ICE 79	Aachen Hbf toward Frankfurt (Main) Hbf
Preceding station	NMBS	Following station
Leuven toward Oostende	IC A	Verviers-Central toward Eupen
Huy toward Lille-Flandres	IC D	Liège-Jonfosse toward Herstal
Ans toward Quievrain	IC F	Terminus
Flemalle-Haute toward Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid	IC M	Liège-Jonfosse toward Liers
Bruxelles-Nord / Brussel-Noord toward Bruxelles-Midi / Brussel-Zuid	IC O	Bressoux toward Maastricht
Liège-Jonfosse toward Antwerpen-Centraal	IR c	Terminus
Liège-Jonfosse toward Liers	IR m	Angleur toward Luxembourg
Terminus	IR q	Angleur toward Aachen Hbf

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.

[edit] Road Connections

Liège-Guillemins is also a transportation hub for TEC Bus: more than 1,620 buses carrying 15,000 people serve the station everyday. It is one of the rare train stations in Europe directly connected to the highway network (E40-E25).