Bad Nieuweschans railway station

Bad Nieuweschans
Bad Nieuweschans railway station in 2006
Location	Stationsstraat 4[1] Bad Nieuweschans, Netherlands
Coordinates	53°11′03″N 7°11′58″E / 53.18417°N 7.19944°ECoordinates: 53°11′03″N 7°11′58″E / 53.18417°N 7.19944°E
Operated by	NS Stations
Line(s)	Harlingen–Nieuweschans railway Ihrhove–Nieuweschans railway
Platforms	2
Tracks	2
Train operators	Arriva
Bus operators	Qbuzz
Connections	Bus lines: 811, 817
Other information
Station code	Nsch[2]
History
Opened	1 November 1868
Previous names	Nieuweschans (1868–2013)
Services
Preceding station   Arriva   Following station Winschoten toward Groningen Stoptrein 20100 Weener toward Leer Stoptrein 37500 Terminus
Location
Bad Nieuweschans Location within the Dutch railway network

Bad Nieuweschans (Dutch pronunciation: [bɑt ˌniuʋəˈsxɑns]; abbreviation: Nsch), previously named Nieuweschans (1868–2013), is an unstaffed railway station in the village of Bad Nieuweschans in the Netherlands. It is connects the Harlingen–Nieuweschans and Ihrhove–Nieuweschans railways and is situated between Winschoten in the Netherlands and Weener in Germany.

The station building was completed in 1867 and demolished in 1973. Train services started on 1 November 1868. Trains were operated by Staatsspoorwegen (1868–1937), Nederlandse Spoorwegen (1938–2000), NoordNed (2000–2005), and Arriva (2005–present).

The station has two tracks and two platforms. There are two local train services with trains every hour to and from Groningen and Leer (Germany). There are also two bus connections at the station provided by Qbuzz.

Location

The railway station is located at the Stationsstraat in the village of Bad Nieuweschans in the east of the province of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands.^[1] It is the easternmost station in the Netherlands^[3] and connects the Dutch railway network in the west with the German railway network in the east. The station is the eastern terminus of the Harlingen–Nieuweschans railway after Winschoten, which leads towards Groningen in the Netherlands.^[3] The Ulsda railway stop was between Winschoten and Nieuweschans between 1887 and 1938.^[4] The station is also the western terminus of the Ihrhove–Nieuweschans railway after Weener, which leads towards Leer in Germany.

History

The sculpture De laatste blik commemorates that more than 102,000 people were transported to concentration camps during World War II

The station building was completed in 1867. It was one of nine buildings in the Netherlands of the type SS Hoogezand etc designed by Karel Hendrik van Brederode.^[5] There was a customs office next to the station building.^[6] The segment of the Harlingen–Nieuweschans railway between Winschoten and Nieuweschans, as it was then called, was opened on 1 November 1868.^[1] The Ihrhove–Nieuweschans railway was opened on 26 November 1876.^[7] Trains were operated by Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen until 1937.

Georges Simenon's story Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets (1931) starts in this station. From 1938 to 2000, trains were operated by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen, which was formed when the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen and the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij merged. During World War II, between 1942 and 1944, more than 102,000 people were transported from the Westerbork transit camp to Nazi concentration camps. Nieuweschans was the last station in the Netherlands they passed, which is commemorated with the sculpture De laatste blik (The Last View).^[8] The station building was demolished in 1973.^[1]

Trains service have been provided by NoordNed from 2000 to 2005, and by Arriva since 2005. On 15 December 2013, the village was renamed from Nieuweschans to Bad Nieuweschans and the station name was changed accordingly. In December 2015, a railway bridge near Weener was destroyed in a collision with the ship Emsmoon, and the Ihrhove–Nieuweschans railway has been closed since.^[9]

Station layout

Station layout
Legend

The railway through Bad Nieuweschans is unelectrified and oriented west to east. At the station, the single-track railway splits into two tracks. There are two platforms, platform 1 is north of the northern track and platform 2 is south of the southern track. Beyond the station the tracks merge back into a single track.^[10]

Services

Trains

There are two local train services (Dutch: stoptreinen, German: Regionalbahn), both operated by Arriva, that call at Bad Nieuweschans:^[11][12][13]

• Stoptrein 20100/Regionalbahn 57: Groningen – Groningen Europapark – Kropswolde – Martenshoek – Hoogezand-Sappemeer – Sappemeer Oost – Zuidbroek – Scheemda – Winschoten – Bad Nieuweschans – Weener – Leer^[11][12]
• Stoptrein 37500: Groningen – Groningen Europapark – Kropswolde – Martenshoek – Hoogezand-Sappemeer – Sappemeer Oost – Zuidbroek – Scheemda – Winschoten – Bad Nieuweschans^[11][13]

The 37500 service only continues to Bad Nieuweschans in the morning and in the evening.^[11]

Buses

At the station, there are two bus connections operated by Qbuzz with the following destinations:^[14]

• Line 811: Bellingwolde
• Line 817: Bad Nieuweschans/Finsterwolde

References

1. (Dutch) Station Nieuweschans, Stationsweb. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
2. (Dutch) Peter Grutter, Lijst van Verkortingen Spoorwegen, Nederlandse Vereniging van Belangstellenden in het Spoor- en tramwegwezen, 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
3. (Dutch) Spoorkaart Nederland, ProRail, 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
4. (Dutch) Overzicht van de spoorlijn Harlingen-Leeuwarden-Groningen-Nieuweschans, Stationsweb. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
5. (Dutch) Stationsgebouwen type SS Hoogezand etc, Stationsweb. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
6. (Dutch) Stationsgebouw Nieuweschans, Stationsweb. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
7. (Dutch) Rowin Penning, "6 december 1876", Noord-Nederlands Trein & Tram Museum, 2012. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
8. (Dutch) Bad Nieuweschans, 'De laatste blik', Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
9. (Dutch) "Schip ramt spoorbrug Weener en legt treinverkeer Leer plat", Dagblad van het Noorden, 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
10. Leeuwarden–Groningen, Sporenplan. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
11. (Dutch) Groningen–Veendam/Winschoten–Nieuweschans (ARRIVA), Nederlandse Spoorwegen. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
12. (Dutch) Treinserie 20100 (2015), OV in Nederland.nl. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
13. (Dutch) Treinserie 37500 (2015), OV in Nederland.nl. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
14. (Dutch) Halte: Bad Nieuweschans, Busstation, Qbuzz. Retrieved 30 May 2016.

External links

• Bad Nieuweschans station, station information