Mobilitéit an Ëmwelt

Luxembourg is a small country, but when it comes to mobility it has big challenges. There are extremely many cars on the roads: hardly any country in Europe has so many cars per inhabitant. Many people depend on their car because they live in the countryside, where the bus does not run often. The result is long traffic jams on the motorways around the city every morning and every evening.

To change this, the government made a big decision in 2020: since then, public transport in the whole country has been free. Luxembourg thereby became the first country in the world where bus, tram and train cost nothing for anyone anymore. Anyone who wants to travel first class by train, however, still has to pay.

In the capital, the new tram plays an important role. After more than fifty years it returned to the streets in 2017, and since then the line keeps getting longer. Today the tram runs from the airport to the centre, and it is to be extended further in the future. Many residents use it because it is reliable, quiet and fast.

Nevertheless, the car remains the first choice for many people. More than two hundred thousand cross-border commuters come to work every day from the neighbouring countries, and many of them drive by car because the bus and train connections are not good everywhere. That is why the motorways are often congested, and the exhaust fumes from the cars burden the environment.

The country has set itself ambitious climate targets and wants to become climate-neutral by 2050. To achieve this, cycling is being promoted, new charging stations for electric cars are being built, and work is being done on a better network of trains and buses. Whether that is enough to reach the goal, however, is debated among the experts.