The former station at Burg-Reuland, a red brick building, lies on the historical railway line which connected Aachen and Luxembourg.
In the time around 1900 this was a busy line on which coal was transported to Luxembourg and iron ore to Aachen. Above and beyond its industrial importance, the railway line also provided the inhabitants of the Eifel-Ardennes region with a facility for getting to work and doing business in larger towns such as Sankt Vith, Malmedy and Aachen.
When the districts of Eupen and Malmedy shifted from Prussian rule to the aegis of the Belgian crown through the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the railway connection began to lose importance. The link from Aachen to Luxembourg was diverted to run through the Moselle valley, and the rail traffic diminished considerably. During the two world wars the line was run by both the German and allied military in turn.
Having said that, after the Second World War the destruction turned out to have been so massive that the line was gradually closed down and the goods traffic shifted completely to the road in the 1960s. Since then, the link known as the ‘Vennbahn’ has been disused. It was subsequently revived as a cycle path. Today, many cyclists enjoy the Vennbahn cycle path between Aachen and Luxembourg, which has only gentle climbs, is traffic-free and goes through very natural surroundings.
