RTL Today - Upcoming tram expansion: The Findel interchange will not live up to all its promises

From 2 March the tram will stop at Findel Airport, but there will be no bus station and ten times fewer parking spaces than planned due to Héienhaff interchange

An incessant stream of lorries and yellow and red cranes are busy in the immediate vicinity of the Senningerberg interchange and along the A1 in the Luxembourg-Trier route. The temperature is -5°C, but that makes no difference. Time is running out. In the test phase since early December 2024, the tram is on its way.

In a month and a half's time, on Sunday 2 March to be precise, the first passengers will be able, for the very first time, to climb aboard the tram and cross the entire capital in a single bound. A tram will take just 7 minutes to travel along the A1 at 70 km/h along the brand new 3.9 km stretch between Kirchberg and Findel airport.

In mid-January 2025, only the tram is visible at Héienhaff. The rest is a vast construction site. There is no trace of the "country's largest car park" on the motorway side, or of the bus station for city and regional buses.

During the very first tram trials at Findel in December, Helge Dorstewitz, Luxtram's Managing Director, assured RTL Infos that "an interchange will be partially operational when the line starts up".

Before dropping off passengers at the "Findel Luxembourg-Airport" terminus, the tram will stop at the "Héienhaff park and ride" (P+R) station. This is the site of the future Héienhaff interchange, designed and presented as a new gateway to the capital.

The bill proposed in Parliament in November 2017 refers to a tram station "integrated into the future Héienhaff interchange" to "provide a link with the Régime Général des Transports Routiers (RGTR) bus station" and serve "the future P+R with almost 4,000 spaces". All of this will form "a major interchange on the north-eastern outskirts of the capital, on the edge of the A1", according to the bill.

The bill further states that motorists will be able to "change modes of transport thanks to the new park and ride facility with around 4,000 spaces at Héienhaff" and, in the process, "use the tramway and avoid the daily traffic problems of getting into the city and its various districts".

The interchange will indeed be "open when the tram comes into service", assured the Ministry of Mobility and Public Works. Instead of the giant car park that has been announced, motorists will have "a temporary car park with 400 spaces" available in March, according to the Ministry. However, it points out that "detailed studies are under way to create a definitive P+R with 4,000 spaces", but that it is premature to give a construction date.

As for the bus station, which is to be built on the other side of the tram station (on the Findel side), it will initially have only "two platforms, one in each direction", according to the Ministry of Mobility and Public Works. Eventually, the bus station is to be equipped with 12 platforms.