{"id":15213,"date":"2016-05-15T05:42:15","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T09:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=15213"},"modified":"2016-05-15T09:54:58","modified_gmt":"2016-05-15T13:54:58","slug":"the-end-of-the-line-for-sncb-a-dozen-photos-at-quievrain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/the-end-of-the-line-for-sncb-a-dozen-photos-at-quievrain\/","title":{"rendered":"The end of the line for SNCB! A Dozen photos at Qui\u00e9vrain."},"content":{"rendered":"

International borders are often bad for railways.<\/p>\n

An invisible political boundary (the dashed line on a map) can prove a greater obstacle than a towering mountain range when it comes to impeding railway operations.<\/p>\n

In mid-April, my Irish friends and I explored the Gotthard Pass, where massive investment will soon make the old line over the mountain redundant as the new 35.5 mile Basistunnel beneath the Alps will divert most of the through traffic.<\/p>\n

A week later I was exploring the border area between northern France and Belgian Wallonia with Mauno Pajunen.<\/p>\n

This is in an area of relatively dense population that was once the center of a thriving coal mining community. Qui\u00e9vrain, Belgium is a town located an hour or so from Brussels and is relatively near to large French cities of Lille and Paris.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The tree growing out of the roof of the old station is indicative the sad state of the railway here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Despite<\/a>
Despite the poor state of the facilities, SNCB continues to provide a relatively frequent passenger service to Qui\u00e9vrain. Electric trains offer an inexpensive and comfortable way to travel to Mons and Brussels where connections are available to many other cities across the country.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Generally speaking SNCB (Belgian National Railways) provides an excellent service across Belgium, with most stations seeing at least an hourly passenger service and many lines operating with an even greater frequency.<\/p>\n

\"Lumix<\/a>
Lumix LX7 photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At one time a through railway line connected Belgian cities of Brussels and Mons with the French city of Valenciennes via Qui\u00e9vrain . Today, SNCB continues to operate a regular interval passenger service from Brussels to Mons with some trains continuing south to Saint Ghislain and Qui\u00e9vrain.<\/p>\n

But Qui\u00e9vrain is the end of the line and the state of the station area is a sad reflection of better times now long gone.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This was once a handsome station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Evidence of the old line remains and the tracks are still in place (although no longer connected).<\/p>\n

The town is divided between Belgium and France, with the French town being called Qui\u00e9verchain. Differences in the price of tabacco and alcohol between the two countries has led to a thriving business on the Belgian side of the border.<\/p>\n

\"Here<\/a>
Here we are at the French-Belgian frontier which divides the town of Qui\u00e9verchain\/Qui\u00e9vrain. Good luck getting through the place by rail!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Oh<\/a>
Oh dear! The connecting stink buggy has arrived.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"SNCB<\/a>
SNCB provides excellent signage at stations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It had been many years since you could take a train directly from Mons to Valencienes.<\/p>\n

In theory, you can ride from Brussels to Valenciennes via a change of trains at Lille, but this is the long way around and impractical for regular travelers.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The end of the line for SNCB! (but the tracks once continued into France.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"SNCB_Quievrain_P1450197\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Europe cross-border services have flourished, yet the end of track at Qui\u00e9vrain clearly demonstrates how borders create barriers between population centers that need not exist.<\/p>\n

Soon you will be able to travel faster than ever before from Zurich to Milan, but not by rail from Mons to Valenciennes!<\/p>\n

\"Only<\/a>
Only a short walk from the end of track will reveal evidence of the old line that once continued across the border. A ghost from another era.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"I<\/a>
I find disused railways sad, yet fascinating. Like discovering evidence of a forgotten empire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International borders are often bad for railways. An invisible political boundary (the dashed line on a map) can prove a greater obstacle than a towering mountain range when it comes to impeding railway operations. In mid-April, my Irish friends and I explored the Gotthard Pass, where massive investment will soon make the old line over … Continue reading The end of the line for SNCB! A Dozen photos at Qui\u00e9vrain.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[3786,4537,575,3530,3529,2333,3528,580],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/SNCB_Quievrain_P1450181.jpg?fit=2448%2C1634","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-3Xn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15213"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15213"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15262,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15213\/revisions\/15262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}