Bels Lijntje

The railway line from Tilburg to Turnhout was opened on 1 October 1867. It was given the name 'Bels Lijntje' because both the construction and the operation were done by a Belgian company. The Belgians saw opportunities to transport coal for the Dutch factories via this railway.
The company Grand Central Belge initially had big plans for the line. It was to become the rail for international freight traffic between the Netherlands and Belgium. Logical, because the railway was very central. But from the early years, there was little passenger and freight transport along the line. The railway became a local line and passenger transport was restricted as early as 1872 and stopped altogether in 1934. Freight transport also went downhill in the 1930s and was discontinued in 1960.
In the summer of 1974, the Tilburg-Turnhout Steam Train Foundation started on Sundays with tourist steam train rides from Tilburg to the border and back. The last steam train ran on the line in the summer of 1981. In 1986, the NS decided that the line could be dismantled. For a long time, it was unclear what would happen next. Many thought that the route was broken up for the TGV. But in the end, the line was given a new purpose. In 1989, a cycle path was built on the old railway bed. In 1993, the cycle path from Tilburg to Turnhout, which crosses the border nine times, was finished. She runs 22 km on Dutch territory and 8 km on Belgian territory. It is very popular with many cyclists and walkers.

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