New line Bettembourg – Luxembourg

One of the key elements of this strategy is to bring the share of public transport from motorised transport in Luxembourg to 25%, is creating efficient mobility chains. These should help to optimise the time to change from one mode of transport to another and thus promote the use of public transport. The MoDu concept is based on three links:
 

• The Luxembourg rail network, which is the backbone of the Grand Duchy's public transport network,

• the tram, the bus, the cars and the bicycles, which constitute the various channels of transport of people and goods, from one point of interest to another, across the country,

• interchange stations are the most suitable points of change for passengers from  private transport to public transport.

It is therefore important to create a link between public transport, private transport and soft mobility. The main measure of rail infrastructure change for the southern axes is the de-doubling of the railway line between Luxembourg and Bettembourg.

As the existing railway line between Luxembourg and Bettembourg is saturated, the new railway line project will significantly increase the capacity of the rail network between Luxembourg and Bettembourg, thus enabling:

- to ensure a more efficient connection of the South of the country to the developing areas of the Capital, including Howald,
- to improve both the offer of cross-border connections with Lorraine and international connections (TGV) and
- to facilitate freight traffic and thus the transport of goods exchanged between Germany and the Benelux countries as well as France, Switzerland and Italy (Rail Freight Corridor North Sea-Mediterranean).

The new railway line between Luxembourg and Bettembourg ensures the construction of a new double-track section with a length of about 7 km without any intermediate stops. Starting at the future exchange hub in Howald, the line first crosses the A3 motorway south of the Gasperich interchange and continues its route to the west of Bettembourg. The line deviates from the motorway north of the Berchem motorway area, bypassing it from the West. It then passes under the national road 31 before crossing the existing Luxembourg-Bettembourg line in the Esch-sur-Alzette with a crossing structure called "flying junction". After this passage of the Alzette, the new and existing lines come together until the north entrance at Bettembourg Station.

The project involves the construction of a several hydraulic structures and intersection structures, including two impressive ones. The first (OA14) is located at the junction of the A3 motorway south of Howald and the second (OA05 & OA06), called “flyover”, is at the intersection with the existing railway northern line of Bettembourg. The crossing of both railway lines requires the transposition of the existing line of about thirty meters, towards the the old route.

The project takes into account the development requirements of various related projects, such as the future transfers platform Howald, the six-lane extension of the A3 motorway, the extension of the motorway service area in Berchem, the redesign of the junction (N31) in Livange, the removal of the level crossing (PN4a) in the Rue Lentz in Bettembourg, the multimodal platform for combined transport in Bettembourg-Dudelange, the new signal box in Bettembourg as well as the future renvewal of the train station in Bettembourg.

The studies, as well as the implementation of the railway platform and the construction of several engineering structures are co-funded by the European Union.