The European Commission has approved €29.3m in German state aid for a new rail-road terminal near Aachen. The EUREGIO terminal is scheduled to begin operations in 2035.

The aid will take the form of a direct grant to infrastructure company EVS EUREGIO Verkehrsschienennetz, which will own the terminal. The facility is expected to reach full capacity in 2037, the Commission said.

The Commission considers the aid “necessary and proportionate” to encourage the shift to rail. It also found that the measure has an ‘incentive effect’, as EVS would not invest without public support.

The EUREGIO terminal is intended to become a hub for freight flows between Belgian and Dutch seaports and terminals in the German hinterland. Cargo from Zeebrugge, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam already reaches the region before continuing by rail into Germany.

With operations scheduled to begin in 2035, the terminal is still almost a decade away from handling its first trains.