Howald works; Credit: CFL

On Monday 16 September 2024, Luxembourg's national railway company, the CFL, announced the full resumption of rail traffic on the Luxembourg-Bettembourg-Thionville, Luxembourg-Esch-sur-Alzette-Rodange and Northern lines.

This follows works carried out on these lines during summer 2024. According to the CFL, these works have made it possible to take new steps in modernising rail infrastructure and extending the rail network to meet growing customer demand and anticipate future train travel needs.

"We are delighted to be able to welcome our customers aboard our trains again for [the] return to school [period]," said Marc Wengler, CEO of CFL. He thanked passengers "for their understanding during our summer works, which are an integral part of an ambitious programme to ensure the continued attractiveness of rail transport in order to welcome ever more customers in optimal conditions of safety, punctuality and comfort". He also thanked the CFL employees and suppliers, among others, involved in the summer works.

The CFL noted that it mainly carries out its major works (resulting in a long-term blockade of rail traffic) during the quieter school holiday periods.

During such works, the CFL sets up replacement buses for passengers: about ten service providers were involved this past summer in carrying out some 850 bus journeys each day (on weekdays) in both directions.

The CFL explained that the interruption of trains between Thionville (FR) and Luxembourg (City), Volmerange-les-Mines (FR) and Bettembourg, Noertzange and Rumelange as well as between Esch-sur-Alzette and Luxembourg (City) from 13 July to 11 August 2024 was necessary for the National Roads Administration to be able to replace the Emile Hammerel road bridge over the railway tracks at Bettembourg railway station.

As reported by the CFL, this period of work and the second period (from 12 August to 15 September 2024), requiring the interruption of traffic between Luxembourg and Bettembourg, enabled the continuation of works to transform the Howald railway stop into a multimodal interchange hub, including:

- the continuation of the construction of a new platform (Quai II) for passengers at the Howald stop, scheduled for entry into service in September 2025;

- the renewal of ten points and 3.5 km of track involving the installation of some 5,500 sleepers and 25,000 tonnes of ballast to allow the installation of four tracks at the Luxembourg Railway Station marshalling yard as well as a track dedicated to the transport of goods at Howald and one of the two platform tracks of the new Quai II under construction near the Howald stop.

The work carried out also included:

- earthworks, foundations and platform works (sanitation, crossings, gutters) and the installation of electric traction and signalling installations;

- continuation of work at the Luxembourg Storage and Maintenance Centre (CRM) to allow trains to access the CRM also from the south of the rail network.

Nested and interconnected, the transformations of the southern slope of Luxembourg Railway Station and the Howald railway stop are part of the construction of a new two-way railway line between Luxembourg and Bettembourg (Neubaustrecke - NBS) over a distance of 7 km (gradual commissioning in 2027).

On the new Luxembourg-Bettembourg line, several elements were also included in the work schedule for summer 2024:

- the continuation of the construction of foundations for catenary poles as well as the installation of the first catenary gantries in the area of ​​the future connection of the NBS to Bettembourg station;

- finishing work on the platforms of the various sections;

- the continuation of the installation of water evacuation systems;

- securing access to the railway line of the new line by installing fences;

- ground stabilisation work to the north of Bettembourg station to provide this part of the station with the necessary stability to bear the additional weight of the two NBS railway lines as well as the additional load of a ramp that will allow trains to the NBS to access the so-called "saut-de-mouton" engineering structure. The CFL said this will allow NBS trains to cross the existing line between Luxembourg and Bettembourg at height and thus avoid any crossing of trains between the existing line and the new Luxembourg-Bettembourg line between the stations of the same name.

On the Northern line, rail traffic was interrupted between 31 August and 15 September 2024 for maintenance and modernisation work. After the commissioning of the first part of the new control station at the end of 2022, the Northern line now has a new "state-of-the-art" control station over its entire route, which has replaced the old-generation Ettelbruck control station, noted the CFL.

Moreover, to improve the electrical power supply of the Northern line, a new substation was commissioned in Flebour. Positioned in the middle of the Northern line route, it reportedly offers greater flexibility in terms of electrical power supply but also higher performance levels (220 kV maximum voltage in the new Flebour substation versus 65 kV maximum voltage in the Walferdange substation).