The origin of the Miljoenenlijn goes back to the early 1920s. At that time, for more than one million guilders per kilometre, a railway connection is laid between Kerkrade and Simpelveld, which provides a connection to the coal track of the Aachen-Maastrichter Eisenbahn and the rest of the Netherlands.
Construction started in 1925 and was carried out by the Spoorwegbouwbedrijf in Utrecht, a subsidiary of the NS. Construction was difficult and expensive. For instance, the mining operations constantly threatened to cause subsidence. In order to keep height differences as small as possible, a lot of earth is moved in the hilly area. While the railway embankment in the valley of the Anselerbeek in Kerkrade is being raised by 32 metres, the railway between Kerkrade and Simpelveld is being lowered by 18 metres in order to prevent too much rising and falling. Even today, the Miljoenenlijn is a railway monument of great cultural-historical value that still fires the imagination. With old and young alike!