In Arlon on Monday Luxembourg transport minister François Bausch signed a letter of intent with his Belgian counterpart formalising a promise made by Xavier Bettel and Charles Michel in 2016 to reduce rail travel time between the two capitals.

The difference, however, is that it will not happen before 2025, as opposed to the 2023 deadline that was originally agreed.

Currently it takes a rail user on average three hours to travel between the two cities, a journey which is considerably quicker when made by car.  

In October, Delano reported that the plans had been quietly shelved because plans to introduce tilting trains on the Basel-Brussels line were blocked by Swiss authorities. At the time, minister Bausch had said that the journey time would be reduced by just 20 minutes by 2020 and that the 2h07 target was off the cards.

Modernisation work on the 226-kilometre rail line to shave off those 20 minutes travel time began in 2007. According to Paperjam, Belgian mobility minister François Bellot said on Monday that the original 2h07 timeframe was “realistic” despite setbacks.