Construction of Monorail Between Thionville and Luxembourg Suspended

Elected officials from several towns in Lorraine want a study for a project to build a monorail suspended between France and Luxembourg by 2035.
Last February, the agglomeration of Thionville (Moselle) launched a study to consider the construction of a suspended monorail to Luxembourg. Tuesday, December 11, 2018, the mayors and elected officials of several other large communities follow suit.

The entities of the Lorraine Sillon, bringing together the towns of Thionville, Epinal and the metropolises of Greater Nancy and Metz, have agreed to launch a study on the impact of such a means of transport.

A project worth 1.5 billion euros
The monorail, if it is born, must connect Thionville to the Luxembourg border. This route taken daily by nearly 100,000 border workers already saturates the road (the A31 motorway) and the rail (the TER). And projections for the next few years foresee a permanent rise of Lorraine workers swinging across the border for higher wages.

This suspended monorail would include 230 kilometers of rail along the A31 and rails of the SNCF and would cost 1.5 billion euros. It could see the light of day by 2035. But it is only a project for the moment and two studies are launched.

It is the company Supraways which carries this crazy project whose similar concepts are already in service in several cities in the world. It promises a cost per kilometer of 8 to 10 million euros: this solution of suspended monorail and air would be cheaper than the tramway, bus lines or the train. The founder of the company played the VRP of this infrastructure in front of the elected officials of Sillon Lorraine this Tuesday.

Government pleads for RER to Luxembourg
Another project is on the table in recent months: an RER, inspired by the suburban train of the Paris region, which could connect Nancy to Luxembourg with a higher rate and fewer stops than the TER.

Minister of Transport Élisabeth Borne recently supported the idea during a trip to Metz (Moselle). “The line between Metz and Luxembourg should have a much larger capacity. The idea would be to create an RER between France and Luxembourg, “she explained.