Farewell Day for the Hoek van Holland line on 26 March

[U-Bahnfreund]

On 31 March, the last passenger service will be running between Rotterdam and Hoek van Holland before the route is closed to be converted to a Rotterdam metro line. Therefore, on Sunday, 26 March, heritage trains (Mat ’46, ’54, ’64) are announced to run on the line in addition to the regular Sprinters. This includes a boat train to Amsterdam C. and return. From 20 March to 26 March there is also an exhibition on the ‘Hoekse lijn’ in Rotterdam Centraal Station.

More info (both Dutch): http://nieuws.ns.nl/vijf-dingen-over-de-hoekse-lijn/
Timetable for the heritage trains: http://nieuws.ns.nl/download/343828/afficheafscheidhoekselijndef.pdf

 

[reb0118]

Thanks for that. I never did quite manage to make it to Hoek van Haven Strand.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

 

[theblackwatch]

I feel a touch of sadness at this news, as it was the first overseas piece of railway that I travelled on - after undertaking my first trip abroad for railways by travelling on the ferry from Harwich to Hook. (Sadly it was after the EM2 locos in Holland were withdrawn, although I did manage a trip behind 1501 on a couple of railtours some years later.)

 

[davetheguard]

I feel a touch of sadness at this news, as it was the first overseas piece of railway that I travelled on - after undertaking my first trip abroad for railways by travelling on the ferry from Harwich to Hook. (Sadly it was after the EM2 locos in Holland were withdrawn, although I did manage a trip behind 1501 on a couple of railtours some years later.)

My first piece of overseas' railway too!

Another memory of the place is seeing dark green Russian sleeping cars: dusty looking net curtains at the windows, and heavy cast Soviet hammer & sickle signs on the side. Strangely exotic in a sort of forbidding Cold War sort of way. Spies & espionage, east to Berlin, further east to Moscow.....

 

[Groningen]

2 days ago i tried for the last time take the Rotterdam Centraal - Hoek van Holland train, but yes; construction works. So i had to bike in 8 hours (with a detour and shopping) between those 2 cities. Hoek van Holland is btw a suburb from Rotterdam; just like Bremerhaven is tied to Bremen.

This is information from the new operator RET. Maybe it is too long, if so adjust it please!

Public transport information for Stena Line passengers

Replacement bus service for the railway line between Hoek van Holland and Schiedam Centrum from 1 April 2017
On Friday 31 March 2017, the last train will use the railway line between Hoek van Holland and Schiedam Centrum. Before the Rotterdam metro can run on this line, the track, safety systems and stations need to be modified. During this work, the Rotterdam public transport provider RET will be laying on replacement bus services between the stations between Hoek van Holland and Schiedam Centrum.

Bus line 711: express service between Hoek van Holland Zeeplein and Schiedam Centrum station
This bus line stops at the stops Zeeplein, Hoek van Holland Strand and Hoek van Holland Haven in Hoek van Holland, and at Schiedam Centrum station. Travel time is about 30 minutes.

Frequency:
Four times per hour during the morning and afternoon rush hours on weekdays.
Three times per hour during the daytime on weekdays.
Twice per hour during the daytime at weekends and every evening.

Stena Line passengers can use bus line 711 to travel direct to Schiedam Centrum station. From there, they can continue their journey by metro to Rotterdam CBD and by train to Delft, The Hague, Amsterdam and beyond or to Rotterdam Central Station (= Rotterdam Centraal), Gouda, Utrecht, Breda and beyond.

Travel products for Stena Line passengers
RET – NS Combi-Ticket : valid for RET and NS
RET 1 Day Full-Fare : valid for RET
Tourist Day Ticket : valid on bus, tram and metro in Zuid-Holland

Where are these travel products on sale?
RET – NS Combi-Ticket:
- On board Stena Line ships
- Online or by phone as part of a 'crossing + public transport' package

RET 1 Day Full-Fare:
- On board Stena Line ships
- From the RET ticket machines at bus stops/metro stations

Tourist Day Ticket:
- On board Stena Line ships

How do I get my NS-RET Combi-Ticket if I buy it as part of the 'crossing + public transport' package?
Customers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg:
The NS-RET Combi-Ticket will be sent out approximately 4 weeks before departure by Stena Line, provided payment has been received for the package and the ticket is part of the reservation. You will not receive separate train tickets for the part of your journey in England. Your printout of your Stena Line confirmation will also serve as your train ticket. For bookings up to 8 days before departure, NS-RET Combi-Tickets are sent out immediately after payment.

Customers in the United Kingdom:
Stena Line hands the tickets to UK customers in Harwich on the day of departure; so in the UK, no tickets are sent out by post but instead passengers receive them at check-in on board, provided payment for the package has been received and the ticket is part of the reservation. You will not receive separate train tickets for the part of your journey in England. Your printout of your Stena Line confirmation will also serve as your train ticket.

How do I use the NS-RET Combi-Ticket?
The NS-RET Combi-Ticket is a disposable public transport chip card ('OV-chipkaart') loaded with a special travel product that allows you to make a single rail journey on NS (2nd class) to/from any railway station in the Netherlands and on all RET's bus, tram and metro lines except the night buslines. It is a single ticket allowing you to travel with both public transport providers by checking in and out.

Where is the NS-RET Combi-Ticket valid?
On RET:
You can use the ticket for unlimited travel on RET buses, trams and metros for 2 hours after checking in for the first time. Changes are permitted. Not valid on the night buslines (= BOB bus).

On NS:
You can make a single journey between two NS stations in the Netherlands. Changes are permitted. Valid on all NS trains (2nd class). For Intercity Direct and ICE, a supplement is required. Not valid on Thalys.

The NS-RET Combi-Ticket is valid on the date it is first used to swipe in. For public transport purposes, a day begins at midnight and ends at 04:00 a.m. on the following day.

Ticket & top-up machines
At the ticket & top-up machines, you can top up your balance or load a travel product onto your public transport chip card ('OV-chipkaart'). Don't have an OV-chipkaart and/or only travelling once? You can choose from RET 2-hour, RET 2 x 1-hour or RET 1-day tickets. At the machines you can pay with debit card (MAESTRO, VPAY), credit card (MASTERCARD, VISA) and coins.
There is a ticket & top-up machine at Hoek van Holland Haven immediately beside the exit from the Stena Line.

Other travel products available from ticket & top-up machines are:
Anonymous OV-chipkaart , which you can top up
Top up your pay-as-you-go credit
Various subscriptions

Will through-ticketing continue to exist between British and Dutch stations?
Yes, this will continue to exist. Nothing will change to the existing offer and rates. The train ticket which can currently be used to travel from Hoek van Holland Haven station to any NS station in the Netherlands will be replaced by a single ticket which you can also use to travel on RET. This is the NS-RET Combi-Ticket.
In order to travel to any Greater Anglia station in England, you should use the confirmation issued by Stena Line. Your printout of your Stena Line confirmation will also serve as your train ticket.

Can I still use my Interrail pass?
Yes, Interrail passes will continue to be accepted on the RET route between Hoek van Holland Haven and Schiedam Centrum. From 1 April, you will be able to use your Interrail pass for travel on the RET buses which will be providing public transport on that route. Show the bus driver your Interrail pass when boarding. Once the metro stations on this route have been sealed off with OV-chipcard gates, you use the barcode on the Interrail pass to open them.

Source: https://www.ret.nl/home/reizen/dien...ment-bus-services-hoekse-lijn/stena-line.html

 

[radamfi]

How are they managing to reopen the line so soon after metro conversion? The Altrincham and Bury Metrolink conversions around Manchester took about 6-8 months back in 1991/2 but the Rochdale via Oldham line took years.

 

[jopsuk]

Presumably the platform height and DC overhead (currently 1.5kV, the tram runs at 750V) needs very little modification

 

[AlexNL]

There will be a lot of changes! They will have to install a new signalling system (which is compatible with RET's systems) across the entire line, 7 stations will be rebuilt to fit within the RET subway "look and feel" and one whole new station will be built.

The extension of Hoek van Holland Strand towards the beach does not take place during this period, but will be realised later.

 

[Starmill]

How are they managing to reopen the line so soon after metro conversion? The Altrincham and Bury Metrolink conversions around Manchester took about 6-8 months back in 1991/2 but the Rochdale via Oldham line took years.

To be fair it only took years because funding was not approved all in one go... So the first part of the scheme was authorised and began construction, and the line through the town centre was funded later. In addition, the line had two street-running sections to construct from new, a new off-line construction and several new bridges (Rochdale) and cuttings (South Chadderton) to navigate. It had to be completely electrified from nothing, almost all of the track was life expired and replaced and some of the route was singled, and there are a whole host of new on-line stops that were not there previously (Newbold, Kingsway Business Park, Freehold, South Chadderton).

 

[Gordon]

Boo!

No more of this then...

Rhein Express, Hoek van Holland, August 1977





.

 

[Groningen]

International trains from Hoek van Holland

1957

Morning
6.30 Rheingold > Roma, Muenchen, Basel
6.37 Ruhr Express > Koeln, Kassel, Bad Wildungen
7.03 Holland - Skandinavian Express > Stockholm, Bad Harzburg, Berlin
7.10 Harz Express > Hannover, Berlin, Hamburg (Summer Thursday and Saturday)
7.16 London Express > Basel, Merano

Evening
17.45 London - Hamburg Express > Hamburg
18.00 Genova, Ventimiglia, Konstanz
18.30 Austria Express > Klagenfurt, Innsbruck, Wien, Bad Aussee
18.50 Nord West Express > Kobenhavn, Berlin
19.08 Hannover, Berlin

Nicest train was the one around 20.30 in Rotterdam to Germany. If the train had a delay of around 5 to 10 minutes than the train had the clear piece of track at Dordrecht and Tilburg. So it was possible to do the 108 kilometers between Rotterdam and Eindhoven in less than 1 hour.

1976
6.50 D 231
7.17 TEE 7
7.33 D 215
7.37 D 2241
16.05 1307 Germany (summer)
16.20 239 Germany
19.01 1245 > Warsawa (summer)
19.30 D 217 Nord - West Express
19.33 D 237 Austria Express

In 1992 only a train to Warsawa plus summertrain to Denmark.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Fond memories of coming off the overnight boat in the mid 1980's and having an East German breakfast in a Mitropa diner enroute to Berlin ! - shamefully with a beer.

 

[Greenback]

Thanks for those details. Like others, his was my first piece of overseas railway. I clearly remember boarding a rather scruffy EMU for Amsterdam on arrival at Hoek van Holland. Although I wasn't too impressed with the rolling stock, I was pleased to see a trollty service was provided, and I managed to persuade my normally economical father to buy something off it!

A tram certainly won't be the same as those long distance trains that used to be lined up at the station when I first travelled the route, which must have been in the early 1980's. They have long since disappeared, though, so a metro line makes sense these days.

 

[gordonthemoron]

1986, did Nottingham-Harwich (the European)-Hoek-Berlin Zoo station. Crossing East Germany was interesting to say the least. The border guards at Helmstedt seemed to take the train to bits, there were miles of disused steam locos just to the east of Helmstedt, Magdeburg was orange

 

[ChiefPlanner]

1986, did Nottingham-Harwich (the European)-Hoek-Berlin Zoo station. Crossing East Germany was interesting to say the least. The border guards at Helmstedt seemed to take the train to bits, there were miles of disused steam locos just to the east of Helmstedt, Magdeburg was orange

The Mitropa diner was pretty grubby - and the staff were "surly" - despite the options of hard currency tips.

The whole train examination on the border was quite scary (think of the Great Escape sequences - but worse - the on train checkers turned out to be Stassi members)

Recall at Magdeburg - East German train cleaners hand washing the olive green stock , pre-war adverts , women working manually in the fields - a trainload of Trabants (guarded by police) , the line of redundant steam locos you mentioned and much more.

All made possible by the train from the Hook .....marvellous stuff.

 

[davetheguard]

The first Russian person I ever met was travelling in the other direction, on the Inter City boat train from Harwich to London Liverpool Street.

I was returning from Delft; she was travelling from Moscow to London. I remember she showed me her large black USSR Soviet passport. It was only after the end of the Cold War a few years later that I met my second Russian person.

 

[Groningen]

From 1960 to 1993 there was a connection from Hoek van Holland to Warsawa with carriages to Moscow. In this century there was for 10 years also a Amsterdam to Moscow connection with the Jan Kiepura. See picture below; coming from Wikipedia.

 

[306024]

The first Russian person I ever met was travelling in the other direction, on the Inter City boat train from Harwich to London Liverpool Street.

I was returning from Delft; she was travelling from Moscow to London. I remember she showed me her large black USSR Soviet passport. It was only after the end of the Cold War a few years later that I met my second Russian person.

I remember a Parkeston guard showing me a Russian train ticket. At least that's what we thought it was, could have been anything really.

Lost count of how many trips I've done over the years on this route. The line up of international trains after getting off the night ferry confirmed you were now abroad. Will continue sailing the route in future but it won't be quite the same. Happy memories.

 

[eastwestdivide]

There are some photos of the museum trains running on the farewell day on the Hoekse Lijn over at Drehscheibe (German text):
http://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?030,8139475

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

There are some photos of the museum trains running on the farewell day on the Hoekse Lijn over at Drehscheibe (German text):
http://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?030,8139475

These are my pictures and my thread, I already planned to translate it to English

 

[AlexNL]

Tonight the last train will run from Rotterdam to Hoek van Holland, the 0:32 all station services. Once the train has arrived in Hoek van Holland, ProRail will start to dismantle the line in preparation of the official handover to the regional authorities on Monday morning.

 

[eastwestdivide]

These are my pictures and my thread, I already planned to translate it to English

Didn't mean to step on any toes - is your English better than my German I wonder?

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

Didn't mean to step on any toes - is your English better than my German I wonder?

I don’t know how good your German is, so I can’t tell how my English is compared to that, but anyways, I’m just gonna post the photos in this thread or shall I open a new one? I’m new in this forum, so I don’t really know...

 

[Groningen]

Well; my German is better than my English, because it takes only 30 minutes to get to Bunde, Germany. There is btw more than 1 Bunde; it is also in the Netherlands and it has also a railwaystation.

 

[AlexNL]

And it's a wrap. The last heavy rail passenger train has left the Hoekse Lijn about 15 minutes ago, running as ECS back to Rotterdam.

 

[route101]

From 1960 to 1993 there was a connection from Hoek van Holland to Warsawa with carriages to Moscow. In this century there was for 10 years also a Amsterdam to Moscow connection with the Jan Kiepura. See picture below; coming from Wikipedia.

Interesting .
Ive noticed now there isent anything further east than Berlin now from Holland.

 

[route101]

Well; my German is better than my English, because it takes only 30 minutes to get to Bunde, Germany. There is btw more than 1 Bunde; it is also in the Netherlands and it has also a railwaystation.

Im always interested if the Dutch and Germans understand each other well .

 

[eastwestdivide]

I don’t know how good your German is, so I can’t tell how my English is compared to that, but anyways, I’m just gonna post the photos in this thread or shall I open a new one? I’m new in this forum, so I don’t really know...

I'd post them here if I were you - it fits with the subject of the thread.

Probably your English is better than my German!
Wahrscheinlich ist Dein Englisch besser als mein Deutsch.
Although twice now, when in Germany, speaking German, I've been asked if I was Dutch or English, so evidently I speak it with a Dutch accent.
Tot ziens.

 

[Groningen]

Ive noticed now there isent anything further east than Berlin now from Holland.

Yes; going south the buck stops at Basel SBB.

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

As stated above, the Dutch Railways said ‘goodbye’ to the Hoekse Lijn from Rotterdam to Hoek van Holland on 26 March. Three heritage trains ran additional services: the Mat ’46, ’54 and ’64 trains. Along with the €16 Albert Heijn day pass for all Dutch railways, this was a perfect, albeit sad, opportunity to come visit the line all the way from the Ruhrgebiet.

Higher resoluton available, just click on the pictures


Picture 1: The new ‘Centraal Station’ in Rotterdam was rebuilt a few years ago and served as the terminus for the Sprinters from Hoek van Holland.


Picture 2: As a German, I am very unused to ticket barriers, such as these ones in the metro or those in the station’s main hall.


Picture 3: Two trams operated by the Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram company, which will also operate the rail replacement buses and the metros on the Hoekse Lijn, stop right next to the main entrance. These are route 23 to Marconiplein and route 25 to Carnisselande.


Picture 4: As the first museum train of the train, the Mat ’64 no. 876, which only became part of the Dutch Railway Museum in last September, leaves Rotterdam Centraal as special service 28202 to Hoek van Holland Haven. In addition to the necessary regular ticket (without one, it isn’t possible to legally leave Rotterdam C. station), special Edmondson tickets were given out for these special trains, which only stopped at Rotterdam C., Hoek van Holland Haven and sometimes Hoek van Holland Strand.


Picture 5: Since the withdrawal of the international sleeper trains, the Hoekse Lijn was operated just like another suburban train line. This is Sprinter 4128 to Hoek van Holland at Maassluis station with SGMm EMU no. 2964.



Pictures 6 und 7: On all stations, NS and RET had posted signs telling passengers about the changes. The green text on the NS poster seems to be official as well (Inchecken bij de spoorbomen! – Touch in at the level crossing), as all/the most OV-chipkaart barriers were already out of service.


Picture 8: Near Maassluis station, a Sprinter to Rotterdam crosses the port entrance on a swing bridge, which was not fitted with overhead wires. Sometimes, trains go too slow over this bridge and have to be pushed by another train.


Picture 9: The historical trains also passed this bridge: Mat ’54, nicknamed the ‘Hondekop’ (Dog’s head)...


Picture 10: ...and the Mat ’46.


Picture 11: Many photographers were delighted when the bridge opened to let a ship leave the Maassluis port.


Picture 12: Again, Maassluis station with SGMm 2977.


Picture 13: The terminus of the line, Hoek van Holland Strand is not even near the strand, one has to walk there some 20 minutes. This is why the station will be moved nearer to the North Sea, while being rebuilt for metro.


Picture 14: Mat ’46 leaves Hoek van Holland Strand for the second last time.


Picture 15: The station signs were also an object often being photographed.


Picture 16: In Hoek van Holland Haven the regular Sprinters called at curvy platforms on the tracks to and from Strand…


Picture 17: ...while the special trains, in this case the Mat ’54, stopped at a straight platform near the station building.


Picture 18: Hoek van Holland is the port for ferries from Great Britian. Stena Line’s Rail & Sail offer from all Dutch stations to all Abellio Greater Anglia stations will still be able to be purchased after 1 April, but then including a NS & RET combination ticket.


Picture 19: The international tracks at Hoek van Holland don’t seem to have been used any time recently. 26 years ago it looked like this.


Picture 20: This night, the end came for the Hoekse Lijn. From September on, Rotterdam metro line B will go to Maassluis West every 10 minutes (after the opening of the new Maassluis Steendijkpolder station, trains will go there) and every 20 minutes to Hoek van Holland Haven, or Hoek van Holland Strand, after that station has reopened. In addition, metro A will be extended from Schiedam to Vlaardingen West in peak hours. As both metro lines A and B don’t go to Rotterdam Centraal station, one will have to change at Schiedam for the NS trains or at Beurs to metro lines D or E to go there.
On the Hoekse Lijn, only some rare freight trains servicing a company at Vulcaanhaven will be left.


Picture 21: Finally a picture of the fabulous Dutch train departure boards.

I hope you enjoyed these photos.