Work at Luxembourg Station and a quality increase throughout the network
The revamping of the country’s main railway station is the emblem of the CFL’s new concept for the national rail network. These major works not only anticipate future mobility needs, but also help to improve service quality, for the direct benefit of their customers.
“A quantum jump in quality across the entire network”. During his visit to the site on 14th June 2023, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Mobility and Public Works, François Bausch, summed up the benefits of the ongoing reorganisation of Luxembourg Station from a rail perspective.
Since 2018, the CFL have been working to provide the country’s main station (1,000 trains a day and some 90,000 passengers) with additional capacity (tracks and platforms) to accommodate more trains smoothly, and especially longer trains. This objective is also being pursued at all the country’s stations, where platforms are gradually being extended to a minimum length of 250 meters.
For customers, this extension of platforms and trains will be accompanied by an increase in the number of seats available, in particular through the gradual introduction, from 2024, of the new Coradia Stream High Capacity railcars acquired by the CFL.
Read also: The Station is transforming into a village square, at the service of customers
Each line with its own track
In the capital, the station’s “open heart surgery” will result in numerous benefits for customers, including improved punctuality. All thanks to the principle of “each line has its own track”.
The additional capacity will make it possible to operate each line independently, so that delays or disruptions on one line are not cascaded onto another. This “domino effect” is all the more understandable in the case of the Luxembourg Station, which is located at the centre of the “star” rail network.
Once again, this approach is applied to other stations in the country that are used by several lines. The disentangled organisation will become a reality from the end of 2023 at the transformed Rodange station, where lines 60 (Luxembourg – Esch/Alzette – Rodange) and 70 (Luxembourg – Rodange – Athus/Longwy) will have their own platform track.
On 14 June, Henri Werdel, Infrastructure Management Director at the CFL, gave an interim update on the work underway at the Luxembourg Station. He pointed out that this work is part of a wider programme to adapt, modernise and expand the rail network, which includes the creation of multimodal interchanges across the country.
Major milestones already achieved
It should be noted that the CFL have already completed several major projects to improve passenger comfort at Luxembourg Station, including new capacity: two new platforms, four new platform tracks, the extension of the north and south underpasses, barrier-free access to the platforms with a new footbridge linking the Bonnevoie and Gare districts.
In addition, the reconfiguration of the northern part of the station in summer 2021 has directly resulted in a significant reduction in delays. At the end of the first half of 2022, the following observations have been made:
- 3 times less delays for Rodange – Troisvierges trains at the southern entrance to Luxembourg station: 21 min. vs. 62 min. of cumulative delays over a week,
- 2 times less delays for trains from Diekirch: 6 min. vs. 16 min. of cumulative delays over one week and from Wasserbillig: 13 min. vs. 27 min. of cumulative delays over one week.
The second Pulvermühle viaduct and the double-tracking of the Luxemboug – Sandweiler-Contern section of line 30 (Luxemboug – Wasserbillig – Trier) are also helping to increase the potential of the rail network to carry ever more customers without any impact on the quality of services. In 2023 alone, the CFL plans to exceed the record number of customers recorded in 2019, i.e. 25 million.
All the more reason to ensure that trains from different lines serving the same station run independently of each other.
Looking to the south… and the new Luxembourg-Bettembourg line
The CFL are currently concentrating their work on the southern part of the station, creating a new connection (two new tracks) between Luxembourg and Bettembourg to relieve traffic on this particularly busy section.
Located on this section, the Howald rail stop is also being redeveloped and extended as a mobility hub.
The new 7 km double-track line between Luxembourg and Bettembourg will enter full service by 2028. It will enable the CFL to reorganise rail traffic along two routes, since the existing line will be allocated to line 60 (Luxembourg – Esch/Alzette – Rodange) and the new line will be used to serve customers on the Lorraine sillon (line 90) and the TGV.
Once again, the logic of operating the lines independently will result in an increased service: up to 8 trains per hour (excluding the TGV) on the Lorraine sillon. Other benefits for customers: direct trains to Volmerange-les-Mines and between Dudelange and Luxembourg.
Every step of the way, the CFL are working for your mobility of tomorrow… with results that are already noticeable today.