Howald railway station (, , ) is a railway station in

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

on line 6, which opened on December 10, 2017. It is located in

Howald Howald () is a town in the commune of Hesperange, in southern Luxembourg. The town merges almost seamlessly with Luxembourg City's south-eastern suburban quarter of South Bonnevoie, which lies to the north of Howald. , the town has a populat ...

, in the commune of

Hesperange Hesperange (; ; ) is a Communes of Luxembourg, commune and town in southern Luxembourg. It is located south-east of Luxembourg City. The total population of the commune is 16,443 as of 2023, making it the List of communes of Luxembourg by populat ...

, in the

canton of Luxembourg Luxembourg () is a canton in the south of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Its name, like the name of the Grand Duchy itself, derives from the name of its principal city, Luxembourg (more commonly known as Luxembourg City). It is not to be confus ...

. It is operated by

Société nationale des chemins de fer luxembourgeois The Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (; Luxembourg National Railway Company; abbr. CFL ) is the national railway company of Luxembourg. In 2024, it carried approximately 31.3 million passengers. As of 2023, the compan ...

(CFL).

Railway situation

At 289 meters above sea level, Howald station is located at kilometre point (PK) 14.400 of line 6, between

and

Berchem Berchem () is a southern Districts of Antwerp, district of the municipality and city of Antwerp in the Flemish Region of Belgium. Berchem is located along the old ''Grote Steenweg'' (Dutch language, Dutch for 'Big Paved Road') that has connected ...

stations.

History

The original Howald station opened on September 26, 1992, with a single platform and very limited facilities. The service was suspended for work between September 2000 and June 2002, before being definitively withdrawn on December 11, 2015.. Plans for a new station in Howald were first mentioned in 2009, and funding to build the station was granted on December 17, 2010.. The station's opening was initially scheduled for 2015, but the financial crisis forced the government to postpone the project. The cost of construction was initially estimated to be around €43 million. The footbridge for the station was installed in November 2016.. The new station partially opened on December 10, 2017 (one platform and an access footbridge), while a provisional stop of the same name on line 4 was officially closed. The second platform was originally planned to be completed by 2020, at the same time as the arrival of the tramway to the south of the capital, with the opening of the second platform and the mixed tramway and bus bridge that will overlook it. However, the opening of the second platform, along with other projects on the line, was pushed back to 2026 due to problems with the acquisition of the right-of-way, revisions to the design of a railway structure due to a nearby motorway, and shortages in construction supplies due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Phase 1 ultimately cost €42.9 million, and provides direct access to the southern districts of Luxembourg City, home to a major business park, the Cloche-d'Or and the new Ban de Gasperich district. The new station saves a considerable amount of time for workers coming from the south of the country and the border regions, as they don't have to go all the way up to the

central station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

and then take the municipal buses, and thus retrace their steps.

Passenger service

Access

Access to the platform is via a footbridge, equipped with elevators and escalators, and eventually via the future bridge over which buses and trams will pass.

Service

Howald is served by

TER Ter or TER may refer to: Places * River Ter, in Essex, England * Ter (river), in Catalonia * Ter (department), a region in France * Torre (river), (Slovene: ''Ter''), a river in Italy * Ter, Ljubno, a settlement in the Municipality of Ljubno ob ...

Regional-Express In Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, the Regional-Express (; RE, or in Austria: REX) is a type of regional train. It is similar to a semi-fast train, with a top speed of and an average speed of about as it calls at fewer stations than ''R ...

(RE) and Regionalbunn (RB) trains, which operate on the following routes: * Line 60 :

Rodange Rodange () () is a town in the commune of Pétange, in south-western Luxembourg. It lies next to the border with Belgium, across which is the town of Athus. The town is to the south-west of the town of Pétange and to the west of the smaller ...

; * Line 90 (TER) :

- Metz-Ville - Nancy-Ville ; * Line 10-60 :

Troisvierges Troisvierges (; ; ) is a commune with town status in northern Luxembourg, in the canton of Clervaux. Troisvierges is both the northernmost and highest commune of Luxembourg, as the two highest hills in the country, the Kneiff (560 m) and Buur ...

Intermodality

Howald station is served by buses, accessible via the footbridge, at the Howald Ronnebësch bus stop served by lines 24, 28 and 29 of the Luxembourg City buses and by lines 302, 455, 456, 501, 504, 621, 655, 801 and 802 of the Régime général des transports routiers. The station is close to the Luxembourg-Sud

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...

facility and its 1,451 parking spaces. By 2024, Howald will be served by the Luxembourg tramway, for which it will be one of the major transfer points.

References

External links

Official CFL page on Howald station
* {{Cite web , title=Gare Howald , url=http://rail.lu/Garehouwald.html , website=rail.lu , language=fr Hesperange Railway stations in Luxembourg opened in 2017 TER Grand Est Railway stations on CFL Line 60