Metz station:
The covered deck with the car park on top dates from 1975.
Thionville - Apach:
like many lines in this area this line was heavily aligned towards freight traffic. This has declined with the decline of heavy industry.
The international long distance passenger that used the line suffered the fate of similar 'secondary' cross border routes in the 1980s, and a couple of international trains that used the line were withdrawn. Then in 1989 the line lost its military trains serving the French sector of Germany
The local passenger service is a curious one. It was once a reasonable service, then in the 70s - 80s had about 5 returns a day. I don't know why the service has been cut so much in recent times, but having visited the area in the past (several times from the early 70s when there was still German steam to Apach - through to the 1990s) I can think of the following possibilities:
The villages served are not very big;
Perhaps school arrangements in the area were changed so that the line lost its student traffic;
The main road from Sierck doesn't have to pass through many pinch points so it is probably quicker for locals to drive to work in Thionville;
Local industry along the valley closed down so there was no traffic outbound from Thionville along the valley during the day
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