History of rail transport in Luxembourg

The history of rail transport in Luxembourg began in 1846 and continues to the present day.

The first negotiations for the creation of a railway on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg began in 1845. A preliminary agreement was signed with a British company on 4 June 1846, but did not immediately bear fruit. A few years later, by the law of 7 January 1850, the government was authorized to negotiate with private companies. The law provided a guarantee of a minimum interest of 3%.

In 1853, the Luxembourger François-Émile Majerus, who had worked for a long time in Mexico as an engineer and geologist, published a pamphlet showing the great economic advantages for agriculture, trade and the Luxembourgish steel industry which would result from a Luxembourgish railway network connected to neighbouring countries.

On 25 November 1855, after five years of negotiations the Chamber passed a law mandating a Luxembourgish railway network, which was to be connected with railway lines abroad.

Four main lines were built:

Two smaller lines were built to transport the iron ore to the blast furnaces at Dommeldange:

Due to the opposition of the local population, the lines were not laid through villages and vineyards.

The railway line received the name of the Dutch King and Grand Duke of Luxembourg: "Guillaume Luxembourg" (GL). It was administered until 10 May 1871 by the Compagnie Francaise de l'Est. After this, the Prussians, having just won the Franco-Prussian War and subsequently having annexed the Alsace, transferred the French rights into a new Compagnie EL (Reichseisenbahn Elsass-Lothringen).

The law of 7 May 1856 mandated the construction of a new direct railway line to Saarbrucken, without going via Trier. This project, the law notwithstanding, was never executed.

On 30 October 1858, the founding stone of the first railway station in Luxembourg City was laid down. The Fortress of Luxembourg was at this point still garrisoned by the Prussian military, and for strategic reasons the railway line could not go into the fortress. Therefore, the new station was built on the Bourbon Plateau outside of the Fortress. The Prussian military authorities demanded that it be built out of wood. The fact that the station was built outside the fortress, 1,500 metres away from the city centre, on the other side of the Pétrusse valley, is the reason for the construction of the city's viaduct, the Passerelle and the Adolphe Bridge.

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