Station Terneuzen

From 1 April 1869 to 7 October 1951, Terneuzen was a station at the terminus of both railway line 54 Mechelen–Terneuzen and railway line 55 Ghent–Terneuzen. The first railway line has now been dismantled, the other is only used for the transport of goods by the companies along the Ghent-Terneuzen Canal. Without railway and local railways, Zeeuws-Vlaanderen would never have become the Zeeuws-Vlaanderen it is today. The railway lines M-T, G-T, the steam tram Breskens - Maldegem and the Zeeuwsch-Vlaamsche Tramweg-Maatschappij (ZVTM) ensured that the area was opened up. The industrialisation of the Canal Zone received an enormous boost due to its location on deep water, but especially due to the railway connections with the hinterland. Agriculture was able to transport grain and beets cheaply to Belgium. Without the railway, the twentieth century would have remained the nineteenth. The line between Mechelen and Terneuzen came out of the Second World War badly. The route was badly damaged and almost had to be rebuilt. Moreover, society was poor. It was therefore not surprising that in 1951 the company was transferred to the Dutch Railways. The track in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen remained in place for more than twenty years after its closure, because the Ministry of Defence thought that the line could one day be used for NATO purposes.

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