The Zwolle–Almelo railway is a regional

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line, that connects

Zwolle Zwolle () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the Capital city, capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel ...

with

Almelo Almelo () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. The main population centres in the town are Aadorp, Almelo, Mariaparochie, and Bornerbroek. Almelo has about 72,000 inhabitants in the middle o ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

History

The railway was part of the third national construction period of railways in the Netherlands. This last phase of railway construction saw mostly the appearance of local and regional railways. With the Zwolle–Almelo railway, Zwolle and the northernmost provinces were offered a direct link to the Almelo-Salzbergen railway.

Route

The railway leaves Zwolle in southeastern direction and continues in a straight line to the town of

Raalte Raalte () is a municipality and a town in the heart of the region of Salland in the Dutch province of Overijssel. Population centres The municipality consists of the following towns and villages. Raalte is the main place of the municipality, w ...

. There it curves towards

Nijverdal Nijverdal () is a town of approximately 25,000 inhabitants in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Overijssel. It is the commercial centre and largest town within the municipality Hellendoorn. Nijverdal (which means ''Industrious Valley'') was fo ...

, where the railway continues underground for 1500 meters, as part of the Salland-Twente tunnel. It then continues to

Wierden Wierden (; Tweants dialect, Tweants: ''Wierdn'') is a town and a municipality in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The municipality of Wierden also includes the following towns, villages and townships: Enter (town), Enter, ...

, where it merges with the Deventer-Almelo railway and continues to Almelo.

Train services

The entire length of the railway is served Sprinter services between Zwolle and

Enschede Enschede (; local ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the province of Overijssel and the Twente region of the eastern Netherlands. The east of the urban area reaches ...

, calling at every station. Since 10 December 2017 an

express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes few or no stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, providing faster service than local trains that stop at many or all of the stations along their ...

runs between Enschede and

, which is intended to continue to Zwolle after track upgrades. The section between Wierden and Almelo is additionally served by Sprinter services on the Deventer-Almelo railway. IC services to and from Deventer do run on section between Wierden and Almelo, but as these do not stop at Wierden they are not usable for passengers on this stretch.

Train Types

NS Before electrification, the NS Buffel was the only train type to be found on the Zwolle–Wierden part of the line. Since 10 December 2017 these have been replaced by electric FLIRT3 trainsets operated by

Keolis Nederland Keolis Nederland is a public transport company operating bus and passenger train services in the Netherlands. Originally created as Syntus and owned by Connexxion, Keolis and Nederlandse Spoorwegen, since 2012 Keolis Nederland has been a 100% subs ...

. Between Wierden and Almelo DD-AR and SGMm trains operate in Sprinter services and ICMm and VIRM can be seen using the line

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwolle-Almelo railway Railway lines in the Netherlands