The workmen were still at work on Monday 3 April at Rodange station, but the opening of its P+R (”park and rail” as the CFL call it, as it is a park and ride linked to a station) is scheduled for Monday 17 April at 4pm. Initially announced for mid-2022 and then for the end of 2022, it will have a capacity of almost 1,600 parking spaces, explains the CFL on their website. The national railway company did not wanted to give additional details for the moment as a press briefing is planned on the day of the inauguration. It will be the third largest P+R in Luxembourg, after those of Bouillon (2,442 places) and Belval-Université (1,622). the minister for mobility, (déi Greng), mentioned a capacity of 1,516 spaces.
This car park--the construction of which began in 2020 and was entrusted to the company Félix Giorgetti with the firm BFF for the architectural design--has a total surface area of 41,000 m2, spread over seven levels, with a green roof and solar panels. The location was not chosen at random, as Rodange station is one of the strategic points of the country’s rail network, being located on both line 60 (Luxembourg - Esch/Alzette - Rodange) and line 70 (Luxembourg - Rodange - Athus/Longwy). The Rodange P+R, which has been awaited for several years, should also help to relieve congestion in certain car parks, such as the one at Pétange station.
A budget of €43.5m
Facilitating access to the trains for cross-border workers is one of the challenges of this P+R. In good news for these users, via the means of communication posted in the vicinity of the site, the CFL specifies that the car park will be accessible free of charge for 24 hours, “by leaving a radius of 1.5 kilometres.”
Although more details on these arrangements will be given on 17 April, an equivalent system had been put in place at the Belval-Université station, where a P+R card had to be badged outside the Belval perimeter in order to benefit from free access to the car park for 24 hours. An equivalent system can be imagined for the Rodange P+R, where the card is badged or scanned at a CFL terminal at least 1.5 kilometres from the station. At present, access to the Belval-Université P+R is subject to a fee, with a monthly pass costing €85 and an hourly rate of €1 from 6am to 7pm.
The total cost of the Rodange station project was estimated at €151m, including the creation of a multimodal interchange, the P+R and an additional platform track. The P+R alone accounts for 29% of the budget, i.e., approximately €43.5 million. “In order to provide all these functions, the station’s track plan must be adapted, including the construction of an additional platform track and a redesign of the switch areas. In addition, the station forecourt, the bus station and parking spaces will be redeveloped to make the hub more attractive,” the CFL says on its website. A new footbridge was installed a year and a half ago. Work on the station will continue for several more months.
This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.