Trams in Liège

[2] The first electric tram service in Liège, which was also the first in Belgium, opened to the public on 9 August 1893, connecting the northern Coronmeuse district (fr) with Herstal, to the east of the city.By the start of the 20th century, there had been some consolidation of the businesses involved, but in 1905, there were still six different organisations operating trams in the city, some in public ownership and some privately owned.[6] Evidence is sparse of any trams having been added to the city's fleet after the 1930s, although most of the tramcars were subject to at least one major overhaul or rebuild exercise during their service.[6] In view of the challenging topography (at least by Belgian standards) of Liège, and the visible absence of investment, the last tram services were withdrawn in November 1967.[7] In 2008, regional political leaders generally agreed on reintroducing trams to Liège in order to address the city's traffic saturation issues, particularly in its low lying central parts by the river Meuse.The plan was revised to build the line in stages initially only from Sclessin (fr) to Coronmeuse, serving 21 tram stops, covering approximately 11 km (6.8 mi).The final decision was announced on 10 December 2014, in favour of the so-called "Mobiliège" consortium (ALSTOM – BAM PPP PGGM – DG Infra).However, in March 2015, Eurostat, the European body for the control of accounting standards, reviewed the financing dossier for the Liège tram, and in July 2015, for the second time and following changes to the file, issued a negative opinion.On 16 January 2016, the City of Liège announced that it has received a negative opinion from Eurostat for the third time, and launched a citizen petition in favor of the tram.[13] A new call for tenders was published in March 2016, and by 5 October 2017, two bids had been received, from Alstom in France and Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) in Spain.[18][1][19] Trams in both directions between Standard and Coronmeuse make a detour over the Meuse via the Pont Atlas to access the Liège Expo stop.The consortium Mov'urba (consisting of the local company Galère in association with Stadsbader Contractors) was awarded the contract to construct the extensions.[22][23][24] However, In late August 2024, the region of Wallonia decided to cancel the two extensions and replace them with reserved or priority bus lanes that would require a change of vehicle at the eastern and western termini of the tram line.