Iron Rhine

Arguing about the Iron Rhine

Until 1991, freight trains rumbled via the Iron Rhine - also called the Steel Rhine - from the Belgian port of Antwerp to the German Ruhr area.

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Because freight transport went downhill, the Dutch Railway operator closed the route between Roermond and the German border in the early 1990s.

This brought an end to the 160-kilometer-long Iron Rhine, which dates from 1879 and consists of four still partly active railway lines.

Political jousting

From then on, the freight trains had to go via the Belgian town of Montzen, the southern route, which is 50 kilometers longer and struggles with capacity problems.

According to Jan Schuermans (Het Nieuwsblad, 2004), the Belgian train operator NMBS contributed to the Iron Rhine's demise by investing heavily in the Montzen section for political reasons.

Reactivation on the agenda

Since 1999, Belgium (especially the region of Flanders) has been pushing to reactivate the Iron Rhine. In 2006, former Flemish Prime Minister Yves Leterme consulted with his Dutch colleague Balkenende about the route: "We would like to see the Iron Rhine in full use by 2015," Leterme hoped.

But several obstacles ensure a status quo:

The reluctance of the French-speaking ministers in the Belgian federal government (at least according to the Flemish party N-VA).
Protest with our northern neighbors: Roermond ruled out the comeback of the Iron Rhine in their municipality.
Resistance from environmental associations: the 15-kilometer-long stretch beyond Roermond also essentially cuts through the "De Meinweg" nature reserve, where the subsurface appears unstable.

3RX via Venlo

In February 2015, Flemish Minister for Mobility Ben Weyts launched a study into three possible routes. The Rhein-Ruhr Rail Connection (3RX) seemed the best option. It avoids the Meinweg nature reserve by taking a detour via Venlo. This also appears cheaper than constructing the route along the A52 motorway.

Dalhaim station in Germany. From here, the railway route is back in use for passenger transport. The traces of the Iron Rhine are visible between the grass, parallel to track 1.

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Six blast furnaces you can visit today

In the early nineteenth century, the industrial revolution swept across continental Europe and one steelworks after another rose from the ground. Europe had hundreds of blast furnaces, but since the mid-twentieth century, Europe's steel industry has been slowly going downhill.

Arguing about the Iron Rhine

Political jousting

Reactivation on the agenda

3RX via Venlo

Discover more

Industrial Heritage

Dark tourism