is in the process of reintroducing trams to its transport infrastructure. Construction work begun on a new tram depot on the edge of the Grünewald Forest and the Kirchbergquarter of Luxembourg City in January 2015, with the first tracks being laid in July 2016. The tramline, when fully operational, will have 24 stations connected by 16 km of tracks and have a capacity of 10,000 passengers per hour in each direction. Trams provided by the Spanish company CAF began trials on the first phase of the route in July 2017. Opened on 10 December 2017, the first phase of the route saw trams run from the depot, along Avenue John F. Kennedy, past the European district, the location of many EU institutions, before terminating at the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge. Here, a new funicular railway was opened on the same date allowing passengers to descend to Pfaffenthal-Kirchberg railway station for access to national and international heavy rail services running through the Pfaffenthal valley. In operation as of 27 July 2018, the second phase sees tram services extend across the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge to Place de l'Étoile in the Limpertsberg quarter. The third phase, to be completed between 2019 and 2020, will see trams extend into the historical Ville Haute quarter, across the Adolphe Bridge and on to Luxembourg railway station for interchanges between national and international heavy rail services, before terminating in Bonnevoie. Work to widen and re-enforce the Adolphe Bridge, first opened in 1903, to accommodate the tramway was completed in July 2017, with a new cycle and pedestrian lane suspended beneath the existing bridge. The fourth and final stage of the route, due to be completed in 2021, will see tram services extend southwestwards from Bonnevoie to Howald, terminating at the new business district in Cloche d'Or. Concurrently, the tramline will also extend eastwards from the tram depot in the Kirchberg district to Senningerberg before terminating at Luxembourg Airport. In June 2018, the Minister for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, François Bausch, announced that exploratory work had been undertaken for a possible future extension of the tramline alongside the A4 motorway to Foetz by 2028, and onto Luxembourg's second most populous city, Esch-sur-Alzette, by 2035. Trams would be expected to reach speeds of up to 100 km/h when traveling through rural sections of the route in a similar fashion to most light rail lines. Luxembourg City mayorLydie Polfer confirmed in 2020 that there are plans to extend the tram line to Strassen.
Trams
Twenty-one CAF Urbos trams were delivered in 2017, with a further twelve ordered in 2018. They are long, wide, high, with 75 seats and able to carry up to 422 passengers at a top speed of. To cope with a gap in the 750v DCcatenary between "Rout Bréck" tram stop in Kirchberg and the central railway station, the trams use CAF’s Greentech Freedrive.
Historical usage and museum
Luxembourg's first horse-drawn tram line began operations in 1875 running through Luxembourg City along a 10 km line. Electrification followed in 1908. The original track followed a route from Luxembourg railway station through the city centre to Limpertsberg. It was extended to various parts of the city until 1930 when the network covered 31 km. Several lines were closed at the beginning of the 1960s as buses replaced the trams. The last tram ran on the line to Beggen on 5 September 1964. The country's other tram network designated Tramways Intercommunaux du Canton d'Esch served Esch-sur-Alzette and its surroundings from 1927 to 1956. A number of historic trams can be seen at Luxembourg City's tram and bus museum located on Rue de Bouillon in Hollerich. In particular, the museum exhibits two electric trams, two tram coaches, and a replica of a horse tram. There are also numerous models and photographs.
