Earlier this week, the Luxembourg City section of the Green Party (déi Gréng) expressed disappointment with the Luxembourg city council and demanded, among other things, more green spaces in the capital. The municipality’s executive board, governed by a coalition between the Democratic Party (DP) and the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV), did not hesitate to respond to the criticism.
Specifically, Mayor of Luxembourg City Lydie Polfer (DP) and Municipal Executive Board Member Serge Wilmes (CSV), are now calling on the Luxembourg National Railway Company (CFL) to “finally” redevelop Place de la Gare. By calling out the CFL, Polfer and Wilmes are targeting Minister for Mobility François Bausch, a member of the Green Party.
“They’re kicking in a door that’s already open,” Bausch said in an interview with our colleagues from RTL 5 Minutes on Thursday. The former municipal executive board member of Luxembourg City pointed out that Polfer and Wilmes “know very well that the square can only be redeveloped when the whole station construction site is finished, because this space is used for all the construction sites around it.”
For the time being, “we still need this space for the organisation of the building sites”, and the redevelopment of the square can be done “as soon as all of the construction works are completed”. Bausch estimates that the square will be renovated “over the next four or five years”.
“Obviously, the CFL is working on a project,” Bausch said. While the Minister declined to go into any more detail, he did reveal that the only concrete idea so far is the construction of a parking lot for bicycles underneath Place de la Gare.
Place de la Gare, according to the Minister, “should become a very friendly square, well integrated into the urban space, and which will revitalise and embellish the area around the central railway station.”
CFL is investing heavily in the station area and is in the process of redeveloping its headquarters. Bausch thinks that this will help embellish the Gare neighbourhood and that the square will become a place “that will not only be very important for the City, but also for receiving customers who use the train”.
Bausch assures that the Ministry is already preparing a call for tender and, when the time comes, “it goes without saying that we will consult the public and the City”.
The Municipality of Luxembourg City “will be represented in the jury of the tender for the development of the square,” the Minister noted, “since, as with all projects, we always work together with the municipalities.”
While François Bausch assured that he supports citizen consultation, he added that in this particular case “it amuses him a little” because he wonders, “who are the citizens we want to consult?” In his opinion “it’s the train users, because nobody lives around this square”.
