On Wednesday, the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill extending Luxembourg City's tram network from Place de l'Étoile to the Luxembourg Hospital Centre (CHL).
The mobility plan had referred only to a possible bus station at the site. It is now official, however: there will be one tram stop near the maternity hospital and a second within the municipality of Strassen, on the site of the former Batiself car park.
The nearly four-hectare site belongs to a private owner who has terminated the leases of the businesses currently based there.
Corinne Cahen, rapporteur for the bill, said she was neither a member of Luxtram's political committee nor mixing her role as an MP with her work as a businesswoman.
Plans for the tram to run as far as the border with Strassen have been known for some time, but the corresponding bill has only now been approved.
The first tests are scheduled for 2032, with Luxtram aiming to begin carrying passengers to the CHL the following year. This will initially be a provisional terminus, as the next phase will extend the line down towards Merl.
The tram will remain above ground along Route d'Arlon before entering a tunnel from Rue des Foyers onwards, according to Cahen.
Some business owners on the other side of Rue Federspiel, which forms the boundary between Luxembourg City and Strassen, are now reeling from the news. The site includes the former Batiself premises and a number of other businesses that are still operating there.
Their leases will come to an end at the close of this year. Furniture retailer Roller, for example, is withdrawing from Luxembourg altogether.
The owner of Salon Figaro, Steve Sanna, however, is staying. He is moving next door because he has no other choice and is in a position to purchase new premises. He will nevertheless lose the parking spaces previously available to customers and employees.
The leases have been terminated even though construction is not expected to begin before 2029. The decision rests with the private owner, a Belgian limited company called Boomerang.
Sanna invested €250,000 in his salon, where he has operated for eight years. He has built up a customer base and employs six people. The arrival of the tram is now changing all of that.
He does not know exactly when the different stages of the project will take place, while it has not yet been officially confirmed whether the state will acquire the nearly four-hectare site.
Sanna is aware that he will not receive compensation. This is despite the former Batiself building already blighting the site and a number of customers staying away following announcements that the businesses are due to close, he said.
Construction could begin in 2029, although even Strassen Mayor Nico Pundel does not know the precise timetable. What Pundel does know is that revising the municipality's general development plan (PAG) and drawing up the specific development plan (PAP) will take time.
