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The Buschtunnel in the south of Aachen (located on the line Aachen-Liège, which is part of the line Cologne-Bruxelles) is the oldest operational railway tunnel in Germany, it was built between 1838 and 1843. The old tube is in a bad condition, speed is limited to 40 km/h. As a first step of renovation, a new tube is excavated on the south side, it will be about 700 m long. The picture was taken on 15 November 2005, when about half of the excavation was finished. Looking from near the eastern end (where the excavation started in June 2005), the end of the tunnel is visible in the dust. Shotcrete (Spritzbeton) was being applied to the walls and the ceiling. The excavation is covered by pipes which are drilled into the ground around the space that is to be excavated. The pipes and the sections formed by this procedure can clearly be seen. The new tube will be single-tracked, permitted speed will be 160 km/h. It is planned to be operational in 2007, then the old tube can be taken out of service. The line is not very busy, about 20 trains per day in each direction at this time, so a short single-tracked section should be no problem. Later the old tube will be renovated with a new interior shell, transforming it from double-tracked to single-tracked and rising the permitted speed to 160 km/h. Thus in the far future the line will be continouosly double-tracked again. The running mode will then be changed from right-hand running (with a flyover on the west side of the tunnel, which is to be removed) to left-hand running (with a flat crossover at Aachen Hbf). Digital photo by Christoph Schmitz (christoph.schmitz2@post.rwth-aachen.de)

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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 4 October 2007. The old tube on the left is currently the oldest operational railway tunnel in Germany, it was built between 1838 and 1843. During the last two years a new tube was excavated, it is nearly finished now and shall go into service in November. 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, will be 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. The new track leading to the new tunnel on the right seems to be finished, but the catenary (which will be operated with 3 kV DC) is still missing. The second new track which will join the first one at the switch in front of the tunnel will be laid later, as the needed space is still occupied by the old tracks further west. The blue handrails in the foreground belong to the new bridge at the Entenpfuhler Weg. The old bridge had to be replaced to make room for the new track alignment. The new bridge is not yet opened, the picture was taken from the temporary bridge next to it. Digital photo by Christoph Schmitz (christoph.schmitz2@post.rwth-aachen.de)

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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 11 May 2008. The old tube on the left used to be the oldest operational railway tunnel in Germany (until it was taken out of service in November 2007), it was built between 1838 and 1843. Since 2005 a new tube was excavated, it is in service since November 2007. 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 ought to be renovated to become a second single-tracked tube, but it seems that the works were not started yet (the last remaining track is still present in the tunnel), 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. At present all trains have to use a single track up to the Hammerbrücke (south of Hergenrath, some kilometres towards Liège). A short section of the second track is already visible, but the rest of it is still missing in this area, as the needed space was occupied by the old tracks further west in the past. Digital photo by Christoph Schmitz (christoph.schmitz2@post.rwth-aachen.de)