The total cost of the new tram line in Liège will amount to 1.3 billion euros. That is the conclusion reached by the Court of Auditors in a new report. While this is ‘only’ a good 139 million euros higher than when the PPP contract was signed in 2019, it represents a doubling compared to the initial cost estimate for the megaproject.

In the report, the oversight body also cites other points of criticism, such as historical mismanagement at the start of the project, a poorly drafted contract, and inadequate oversight during implementation.

Flawed planning from day one

Since April of last year – although with a 2.5-year delay – a tram has been running through Liège, connecting the train station to the city center and other destinations. And it has been a success: with peaks of 4,000 to 5,000 passengers per hour, operator LETEC has carried 12 million passengers in its first year.

However, factors such as significantly higher-than-planned costs had already led to a surge in criticism of the project. The Court of Audit’s report on how the project was conceived and managed now provides objective support for that criticism.

The project was announced in 2008 and approved by the Walloon government in 2009. The decision and the eventual construction of the tram line, through a public-private partnership, took place from 2019 to 2025.

The Court of Auditors now states that the decision to build a tram and the choice of route were not sufficiently thought through from the outset, let alone whether technical feasibility and the budget were taken into account, and that there was barely any investigation into how the bus network would need to be adjusted. The route itself was not well thought out either; the planned extensions were even scrapped in 2024.

To finance the project, Wallonia opted for a public-private partnership (PPS) with the Tram’Ardent construction consortium (Colas, CAF, DIF), specifically to spread the impact on the budget over time.

According to the Court of Auditors, this decision was made without a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether this was the best use of public funds. Furthermore, because there is no legal framework governing PPP contracts, the Court recommends establishing one.

Poor oversight during construction

The Court of Audit also notes that there was inadequate oversight during the execution of the work itself. For example, contracts for technical assistance and project staff were sometimes modified irregularly, and the risk assessment related to project management was submitted late, was poorly structured, and has not been updated.

Furthermore, outsourcing project management entailed additional costs and the risk of conflicts of interest. And finally, the bill is even higher than expected. In earlier estimates, the construction costs had already risen to 785 million euros – about 250 million euros more than originally budgeted.

However, the Court of Auditors is now calculating the total program costs through 2052 – the term of the concession – and arrives at a figure of at least 1.3 billion euros, which is about 130 million higher than the original contractual estimate from 2019: 263.1 million euros already spent by the end of 2025, plus at least 990.5 million euros in future costs. And even that figure is still preliminary, as the costs of ongoing disputes have yet to be added.

Minister assures that adjustments will be made

Research by Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, based on more than 16,000 projects in 136 countries, shows that 0 out of 10 megaprojects go over budget, over schedule, or both. For rail projects specifically, the average cost overrun is 44.7%, measured from the time the construction decision is made.

The 250-million-euro cost overrun on the Liège tram project therefore – as regrettable as it may be – actually falls within the statistical norm of this type of project.

However, Liège residents are getting less tram service than planned for more money. And the Court of Auditors’ report now shows that this is not simply a case of typical megaproject mishaps, but rather identifiable administrative errors.

In a statement, Walloon Minister of Mobility François Desquesnes (Les Engagés) emphasized that several of the recommendations made by the Court of Auditors are already being implemented in the agreement between Wallonia and the Walloon Transport Company (OTW), as well as in the decree on public passenger transportation in the Walloon Region, which is set to be revised shortly.