Cross-border workers must, however, still pay fares for their journeys to the border, but at a reduced rate to take the move into mind. However, it stands to reason that many commuters may have decided to travel to the first Luxembourgish station across the border by car and then hop on a train.
As you can expect, Bettembourg station was fairly busy Monday morning at 6.30 am. The car park was especially busy, it should be said with parking spots at a premium.
On workdays, an average of 8,600 people take the train from Bettembourg to Luxembourg City, including cross-border workers from Germany and France. These commuters have had the best of parking at the station and the choice of seats in carriage for a considerable amount of time, but will now face increased competition.
The major concern about free public transport is that trains will be at capacity, and many commuters are worried about needing to arrive at the station earlier to ensure they can get a parking place. However, according to passengers who spoke to our colleagues on Monday morning, things remained relatively quiet on the parking-and-getting-the-train front.
There was nevertheless the occasional over-filled train on Monday, the majority of which came from France.
Some 10,900 passengers travel through to Luxembourg via Bettembourg's rails. The potential for busier trains both motivates people to splash out and save: those prioritising space will have been happy to pay for first class tickets, and the less legroom fussy are happy to save money on travel every month.
Whether more people took to public transport on Monday or not can only be estimated. According to the CFL, it is far too early to provide data on the general impact of free public transport.
One thing was clear - the car park at Bettembourg station was totally full by 7.30 am. The CFL knows that the 311 spots in the car park are far from sufficient. Currently, the railway service is carrying out research on plans for expanding the car park.
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