The European Union (EU) has announced a non-repayable €35 million aid to Luxembourg as part of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) co-financing intended to subsidise the electrification of the bus network of the General Road Transport Regime (Régime général des transports routiers - RGTR).

In this sense, an agreement was signed between Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Mobility and Public Works, François Bausch, and Minister for the Economy, Franz Fayot.

The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly affected the European Union (EU) in health, social and economic terms. As a result, a recovery plan of nearly €50 billion "Next Generation EU", part of the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and REACT-EU (Recovery Assistance for Cohesion and the Territories of Europe) project, was defined by the European Union at the end of 2020 to repair the damage caused by the crisis and support the recovery in the Member States.

In this context, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg benefits from a financial contribution from the ERDF under the community programme "Investment for growth and employment" 2014-2020, which is intended to "promote the repair of damage to the following the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and preparing for an ecological, digital and resilient recovery of the economy".

Electrification of the RGTR bus network

A priority of the government is to fight against climate change, in particular by reducing CO2 emissions from combustion engine vehicles. This commitment by Luxembourg took concrete form in the ratification of the Paris climate agreement and imposes strict operating conditions. In this logic, the government programme of 3 December 2018 provides for the complete electrification of the RGTR network by 2030: "Pilot projects for electric bus lines will be continued with the objective of achieving zero emissions on the RGTR network of regional buses in 2030”.

In September 2020, the Department of Mobility and Transport launched a tender for the operation of public road transport services "RGTR". This contract takes account of these expectations by providing for the electrification of several bus lines either from the start or during the execution of the contract in question. This objective is in the spirit of Directive (EU) No. 2019/1161 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 amending Directive 2009/33/EC on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles , the State of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg intends to promote and stimulate the market for clean and energy-efficient vehicles.

In 2021, the RGTR bus network in Luxembourg had 465 public and school lines, with more than 9,000 daily trips during the week and a service of 81.5 million km traveled. During 2022, the number of passengers increased by 26% compared to 2021.

In 2022, the fleet consisted of 1,396 buses in total, including the reserve, including 158 electric buses. This number represents 11% of the RGTR fleet in 2022. Until the end of 2023, the number of electric buses will increase to 500 buses, with 23,800,000 kilometres planned. In 2024, the electrified network will be spread over 77 public bus lines. This development is closely linked to the subsidy for the electrification of the RGTR network by the FEDER/REACT-EU programme.

The buses put into service and eligible for ERDF co-financing are of three types, namely "midibuses" (eleven metre long), "standard" low-floor buses (fourteen metre long), and "articulated" low-floor buses (nineteen metre long).

The “E-BUS RGTR” project was thus selected by the ERDF/REACT-EU to benefit from this co-financing since this project fits perfectly into the program in question. Financial participation began on 17 July 2022 with the entry into force of the new public service contracts for the operation of the RGTR network.

A page dedicated to this subject has been published on the mobiliteit.lu website in order to inform the general public and is available via: https://www.mobiliteit.lu/fr/a-propos/feder-react-eu/.