Another delay for new streetcar in Liège

Residents, commuters, and visitors to the city of Liège will have to be more patient if they want to use the new streetcar. The inauguration has been postponed again, this time to April 28th. The Walloon public transport company TEC indicates that several technical problems remain, so it has a new start date.

Streetcars have been passing through Ardent City since February 11th but are always empty except for the driver or technical staff. They are part of the testing phase, and just as the streetcar is being put into service so that it can be commercially operational and safe, several technical problems have surfaced. The startup scheduled for April 15th has been delayed by almost two weeks.

Saga

The commercial commissioning of the Liège streetcar is a real saga. Initially, it was scheduled for October 2022. But construction problems piled up, and costs soared—the latest estimate is 1.173 billion euros—so that in the summer of 2023, January 31st, 2025, was pushed forward as the date of the commissioning.

However, at the end of November 2024, it became clear that recouping the delay would be impossible, and April 15th was proposed as the new date for commissioning.

Synchronization of traffic lights and bug

On Tuesday, TEC announced that future users must be patient for an additional 13 days until April 28th. One reason for the postponement is that the 64 traffic lights that the streetcar must pass through, which will be programmed to coincide with its passage, have not yet been adjusted.

Moreover, there would also be a bug in the SAE system, an automated assistance system that supports streetcar drivers by automatically monitoring the operation and intervening when necessary. This rail service operating system aims to increase safety by minimizing human error and improving operational efficiency.

The postponement of the new streetcar’s commissioning has also delayed the major renewal of the bus network. This new plan, in which the streetcar is the backbone, can only be launched simultaneously with the streetcar’s commercial commissioning.

No extension

Last week, the Council of State rejected the request for suspension filed by the cities of Seraing and Herstal and the municipality of Saint-Nicolas against halting the streetcar extension.

At the end of August, the new Walloon government proclaimed that this extension from Liège to Herstal and Seraing, which had been announced during the previous legislature, would not happen. It was considered too expensive, and it was decided to replace it with priority bus lines.

For example, the Council of State did not endorse Seraing’s argument that the city could not adopt a municipal mobility plan and a municipal development plan.