Transport minister François Bausch (déi Gréng) together with officials from Luxembourg City and Luxtram on Monday presented the next steps of the tram’s development.

A stretch of 1.2km will be added to the route by September 2022. It will take 3 minutes and 40 seconds to travel from the central train station to the Lycée technique in Bonnevoie.

The tram currently runs between Luxexpo and the gare and counted up to 42,000 weekly passengers in April, roughly double the number of passengers compared to December 2020. Once the Bonnevoie extension is in service, hopes are that passenger numbers will double again and the tram should draw 120,000 passengers a week once it is also connected to the airport and new national stadium.

The tram will use an overhead power lines on the new stretch, as it does in Kirchberg, and will run across the Buchler bridge, which has been widened for the purpose, and along the N3, better known as the Route de Thionville.

The stop at Lycée technique de Bonnevoie will become a new transport hub, where the tram will connect to buses, a Vel’oh station and secured bicycle parking.

The two new stops that will be added by September 2022 will be called “Leschte Steiwer/Dernier Sol” and “Lycée Bouneweg”. The Rue du Dernier Sol is named after a 19th century inn, the “Leschte Steiwer”, where farmers spent their last “Steiwer” or “Sol”--a regional currency--on a drink before going home.

The last 3.7km extension between the Bonnevoie school and the national stadium will begin in September 2022 to conclude in 2023. The following year, works will start in direction of the airport from Kirchberg.

This story was first published on Paperjam and has been translated and edited for Delano.