The Buschtunnel in the south of Aachen (located on the line Aachen-Liège,
which is part of the line Cologne-Bruxelles) seen from the western side on 23
November 2007. The old tube on the left is currently the oldest operational
railway tunnel in Germany, it was built between 1838 and 1843. The new tube on
the right was excavated during the last two years. The old tube used to be
double-tracked, but after several renovations (with additional layers of
brickwork applied several times) it is very short of space for that. So the new
tube, which seems to be about the same size, is single-tracked with enough space
to meet current safety requirements. Later the old tube might be renovated to
become a second single-tracked tube, but the funding for this is not yet
assured, so the line will probably be single-tracked here for a while. At
present the traffic is low enough to allow this, due to the construction works
this section of the line is already single-tracked anyway.
<br>
In the picture the inaugural train, formed by a class 406 EMU, is about to enter
the new tube. In the course of the startup of a new electronic signalbox at
Aachen, the new tube will be taken into service on the following weekend, too.
So there was no need to equip the new track with old signals or the old tracks
with new signals. Near the tunnel a second track branches off (visible next to
the old distant signal), it will be continued later when the old tracks are
removed. So for some time the line will remain single-tracked up to the
Hammerbr&uuml;cke on the Belgian side, where a junction is present.
<p>
Digital photo by
<a href="http://www-users.rwth-aachen.de/christoph.schmitz2/index.html">Christoph
Schmitz</a>
(<a href="mailto:christoph.schmitz2@post.rwth-aachen.de">christoph.schmitz2@post.rwth-aachen.de</a>)