Opportunities for reinforcing cross-border railway connections: the case of the Liège (Belgium) – Maastricht (the Netherlands) connection

ABSTRACT

Efficient mobility is an essential driving force for the development of cross-border (CB) regions. The different settings and visions of neighbouring CB entities may lead to unsatisfactory transport connections across the border. This case study of a CB connection focuses on this issue and highlights, by means of a comparative analysis, how the differences in six perspectives (the economic context; urban and regional planning in Belgium and the Netherlands; the structure of the rail network; barriers in the exploitation of the railway; the current travel demand by rail; and the governance, public planning and policy context) lead to an unsatisfactory rail connection between Liège (Belgium) and Maastricht (the Netherlands). Based on the results of the analysis, we suggest reinforcing cross-mobility connections through several tools such as (i) the development of a common governance, not only at the institutional level but also at the counter level of institutional level, by including economic and social stakeholders; (ii) the development of joint technical projects in relation to the infrastructure, communication systems and the rolling stock; and (iii) the strengthening of flows between the two sides of the border, especially the home-work flows.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-border mobility
• cross-border cooperation
• cross-border transport
• border regions
• rail transport
• barrier effect

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the reviewers for the valuable input given for an earlier version of this work. We also acknowledge Razvan Sandu (ULiège), author of Figure 2, and Dr. Bruno Bianchet (ULiège) for his initial suggestion to investigate the potential of this Lège-Maastricht railway; this research led to this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Nathalie Christmann http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0137-1626

Martine Mostert http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2794-0716

Pierre-François Wilmotte http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1350-1421

Mario Cools http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3098-2693

Notes

1 Data from Google Maps provided by the different operators for a typical weekday during peak hours (provided in June 2018).

2 Data provided by NS, the Dutch national railway company, and accessed at: https://www.treinreiziger.nl/aantal-en-uitstappers-per-station-2013-2016/ (accessed June 28, 2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the ERDF co-financed by the Walloon Region under Interreg V-A Euregio Meuse-Rhine 2014–2020 for the EMR Connect (ECON) project, by the ERDF co-financed by the Walloon Region under Interreg V-A Greater Region for the UniGR Center for Border Studies (European Competence and Knowledge Center for Border Studies) project and by the Walloon Region under Grant Standing Conference of Territorial Development (in French: Conférence Permanente du Développement Territorial).