english

nick bos: better train connections good for university maastricht

Maastricht University is the Netherlands’ most international university. Of its 17,000 students, 51 percent come from abroad, sometimes from a long way away. However, public transport accessibility from Germany and Belgium, for example, is frankly poor. “A direct train connection with Liège and Aachen would be great.”

Maastricht University comprises some 110 different nationalities. Students come from all over the world, from China to South America, from South Africa to Australia. For those from far away, international air connections are important, but the vast majority of students still depend on the bus or train.

Half

“That’s because most of our foreign students come from Europe,” says Nick Bos, “and the majority of them from Germany and Belgium. Roughly half those students live in one of our two neighbouring countries. Some of them have ‘digs’ in Maastricht, but many hundreds of them commute from home each day. They usually drive, because there are no direct public transport connections with either Belgium or Germany. It’s in fact possible to commute by train or bus, but you then spend a lot of time waiting and transferring. So it’s understandable that a lot of students decide not to bother. The same also applies to a significant proportion of our staff. Forty percent of our teaching staff are from an international background. Some of them come and live here as expats, but others commute to and from places like Aachen, Cologne, Leuven, and Liège.”

That means that Maastricht University generates a lot of car traffic, with the associated negative impact. “There’s a lot of pressure on parking in the suburbs around the university,” says Dr Bos, “and that leads to a lot of irritation. And there’s also the environmental impact. The UM attaches great importance to sustainability and wants to discourage car use. But that’s problematical without a good public transport alternative.”

Accessibility

By the end of this year there should be a direct train connection between Liège and Aachen via Maastricht and Heerlen. “Of course, we welcome that, and not just because there’ll then be an alternative for the daily commuters. It also means a direct connection to the TGV service in Liège, which will allow our people to travel on directly to France and Spain or London. And from Aachen you can conveniently take the ICE to the major German cities or to the airport in Düsseldorf. The new line will immediately improve access to the UM, which is an important argument in our recruitment campaigns. Two of the factors that make the UM popular are its various international programmes and its central location within Europe. That’s why Maastricht is also in demand as venue for conferences. Americans see it as an ideal jumping off point for exploring Europe. But it’s then a bit of a let-down if the train connections aren’t up to scratch and the nearest international airport is an hour and a half hours’ drive away. There isn’t even a direct connection to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, which is ridiculous. Anyway, the ‘Three Countries Train’ will solve part of the problem. A connection between Maastricht Aachen Airport and an international hub would also be very welcome.”

Alternative

Nick Bos also believes that on some routes the connection to the high-speed train lines in Germany and Belgium will immediately make the train an attractive alternative to flying. “Yes, I think so. It’ll then be easier and quicker to get to cities like Paris, Berlin, and London by rail. And more comfortable too. Speaking personally, I’m not a big fan of having to wait around at airports, with long check-in times and delays.”

Brussels

For the UM, there’s another important argument in favour of a better connection with Liège. “Since last year, we’ve had a branch in Brussels. That’s less than three quarters of an hour from Liège by train if you take the TGV. But the Maastricht-Liège stretch is a bottleneck. You have to hang around for a long time in Liège waiting for the connection. It’s high time they changed that.”

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