After many years of absence with trams running in the streets of Luxembourg city since 1965. It finally came back on 10th of December 2017! On 10th of December a 3.5 km stretch of the new tram line opened. Now this tram line runs between Rout Breck (Pont Rouge) and Luxexpo. 3.6 km of the entire track which will be 16 km long by 2021 have no overhead line. So, these trams got either battery or another solution for this.
Luxembourg tram will be extended until 2021
From 2017 until 2021, this 16 km long line will be opened in stages. What is interesting is that already now you can take the tram from Pont Rouge which is connected with the national railway that is connected by a funicular. At some point before 2021, the tram will reach Luxembourg central train station. It will go to Cloche d’Or on the west side of Uelzecht river and to Findel on the east side.
Since 1964, as with many other cities in the world. Many of the worldwide governments gave up trams for buses and cars. But as we have seen in many towns recently. Trams is now making their way back to world’s cities finally. It’s been a waste of money for sure as Luxembourg as one great example could have saved a lot by keeping some of the tram routes from 1964 until now. But it is for sure better that Luxembourg now finally got a clean transport system. We at Distrita really thinks that trams is one of the transit options for cities, that is able to bring life back to the towns. They can also be built way better in co-operation with pedestrian only roads. Trams are both clean and very handy for town involvement and dignity.
Including reaching the main train station, this tram line will also reach Luxembourg Airport by 2021. Interesting times ahead for Luxembourg for sure.
Map of the new tram line that is open to the public since 10th of December 2017
Dublin’s tram reaches a important milestone
Other extensions is Dublin, where the red and green line now crosses each other in the city center. This is done in a quite interesting way. The green line divides itself before crossing the red line. On the green line, you need to go off Abbey Street station. But for the red line if you want to go north and change for the green line, you need to go off at O’Conell BEO station while if you south, you need to use Marlborough station.
So, if you need to change between these two lines. See the Map Below
So, now you can finally change between the lines. Remember also that Dublin got left side driving like United Kingdom. At the Conolly station, you can change for dart and the national railway in Ireland.
Other interesting happenings worth Mentioning
In Basel, Switzerland. You can now take the tram to Germany and now also to France. Line 3 takes you to Gare de Saint-Louis in France from Basel. In Zürich, Switzerland there is a small extension on Line 8, which is extended to Schiffbau. In Germany on 10th of December, Stuttgart got a small extension on its U12 line which now runs all the way to Wagrainäcker. Also Potsdam, Germany extended their Line 96 to Campus Jungfernsee. In their neighbor country Austria. Innsbruck got a 3 km extension of Line 3 to Technik West & Peerhofsiedlung.
Many extensions and a new tram line happened 9th and 10th of December in Europe. Nicest this is to see Luxembourg getting their tram back on their streets since 1964. Use your transit options in your city if you can. Your city will breath better.
Source
Urbanrail.net
YouTube
