The park-and-ride facility designed by the Portes de France Thionville agglomeration community is one of the solutions that will relieve the daily lives of border workers. Long awaited, the project has now entered the construction phase.
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The principle
The P + R – park and ride in English or park-and-ride in French – allows you to come and park your vehicle and continue your journey using another mode of travel. Here, the P + R is aimed at people subscribing to cross-border bus lines (300 and 301) which rotate with several destinations on the Luxembourg side.
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The upcoming offer
The park and ride will be located in the area known as the Red Terres, in Metzange. It will offer 750 places. As in the current provisional system (in the Kinepolis car park) access to the site will remain free for holders of a bus season ticket. A barrier system will secure the site. Additional services could be offered (bread deposit, parcel collection) in a small building at the entrance to the site. Operations departments would also be located there.
In addition to border lines, the car park will have direct access to interurban lines. This will bring the number of bus stops to eight, with a service road from the rue des Terres Rouges.
In addition, a link will be made with the existing cycle path along the D 14B, with the installation of parking spaces for bicycles.
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The calendar
The preparatory work (in particular the deviation of networks) began last October. Today, we are at the heart of the matter. The car park will be on two terraces separated by embankments to take into account the natural relief of the site. The project is titanic: the work will continue until the fall; commissioning is expected before the end of the year.
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Funding
In a northern Moselle suffocated by road travel, the need for additional infrastructure is obvious. The Portes de France Thionville agglomeration community, as well as the City, are working on the subject but obviously cannot act alone. To be able to launch the work, many communities were called upon to contribute, in particular for peripheral developments: State (€ 300,000), Region (€ 125,000), Department (€ 500,000)… but it is above all the commitment of Luxembourg which was decisive.
The neighbor has in fact committed to finance half of the investment, or € 2.6 million (the other half remains the sole responsibility of the agglomeration). A significant act of co-development, which stems from the agreements signed in March 2018 in favor of cross-border mobility. Where Luxembourg had given the green light for a total envelope of 120 million euros in the direction of infrastructure.
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Overcrowded car park in Kinepolis: a meeting and small steps
While waiting for the Metzange P + R, a 468-space park-and-ride has been available at Kinepolis for years. At the end of 2019, a combination of events brought about a critical situation, the site being sold out at 6:40 a.m. That is 40 minutes earlier than usual, plunging users into great distress. A petition and quantity of press articles later, representatives of these same users were received by the mayor of Thionville. The OGBL was there.
What to remember? First of all, the origin of the problem: a strong shift towards border buses because of the strikes at the SNCF and the breaking of load at the Thionville station. And then the ban imposed by businesses in the leisure area to park in their own car parks. In recent days, it seems that the situation is a little less tense. Kinepolis has agreed to relax the parking rules, allowing 150 additional spaces, but after 8:30 am. For his part, Mayor Pierre Cuny asked users to organize themselves differently, by being dropped off or by taking the bus at Place de la Liberté. The two parties have promised to meet again in a month to take stock.
C. F.
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