Eurocap-Rail

Description of the project and interest for Luxembourg

The Eurocap-Rail project aims to interconnect the railways of Europe's three main cities, i.e. Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg.

On the Luxembourg side, the main interest is in improving the line to Brussels, which currently suffers from a number of disadvantages, with a view to providing a high-quality and high-performance service. As far as possible, this will take the form of an extension of the Strasbourg - Luxembourg branch of the TGV Est-Européen to Brussels. This project will be a simple extension of the TGV Est-Européen.

On 1 October 2003, the European Commission drew up a list of priority projects for trans-European transport networks. The EU Council of Transport Ministers confirmed this proposal, which includes the Eurocap-Rail project, on 5 December 2003.

Brussels has or will have high-speed rail connections with Paris, London, Amsterdam and Cologne/Frankfurt.

Luxembourg has been connected by high-speed train to Paris and Strasbourg, and even to Lyon and the Côte d'Azur.

On the Brussels-Luxembourg section, the line was re-electrified with 25kV50Hz alternating current in Luxembourg. The new control centre has been commissioned at Kleinbettingen station. This latest project was subsidised by the European Commission.

In Belgium, the line has been completely modernised and re-electrified with 25kV 50Hz alternating current between the Belgian-Luxembourgish border and Namur. Seven curves have been re-electrified to increase line speed. Work has been completed between the Belgian-Luxembourgish border and Libramont, as well as between Ciney and Namur. The track layout at Ciney station has been revised. Modernisation and safety work is currently underway between Libramont and Grupont, and between Haversin and Ciney.

A monitoring committee that is supposed to meet twice a year supports this work.

The CFL and the SNCB are currently carrying out a study into the operation of the line once the works have been completed, with a view to making journey times between Brussels and Luxembourg more attractive.