Metzange relay car park, Monday March 15: 599 spaces available; Friday March 19: 628 places available. We will allow ourselves to do without the attendance figures for the days stuck between the two sides of this working week. They are part of the same tone and portray the same impression of emptiness. As a reminder, this P + R devoted to border mobility and co-financed by Luxembourg – a first to welcome in the long chaotic history with the Grand Duchy on the border issue – has 750 parking spaces. This giant, on the alert since its inauguration on February 15, is clearly not successful. To the naked eye, the start is sluggish even as the timing of certain border lines crystallizes the dissatisfaction of a fringe of users.
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But when you dig a little, a little bit, you quickly realize that this first impression is misleading.
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400 subscriptions
“It’s rather encouraging,” said Pierrick Grall. Pierre Cuny’s chief of staff, the president of Portes de France-Thionville, refers to the figures. Other figures than those returned by the P + R daily attendance panel. In this case, those for subscriptions which have just exceeded the 400 mark, “or today 60% of the total capacity of the park-and-ride. . It’s rather… ”Encouraging, yes.
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“To serve our interests”
Another interesting fact: the geographical origin of these newly converted faithful instead. Of these 400 subscribers, 30% come from the territory of the agglomeration and 55% from the neighboring Val de Fensch. There remains therefore 15%, the “outside” for which, important precision, the price of the monthly fixed price goes up to 40 € (against 10 € for the premises). Again subject to strong criticism, the tariff barrier reinforces the assumed position of Portes de France-Thionville: “Above all, serving the interests of“ our ”border workers. Before the creation of this park and ride, many users complained about the saturation of the Kinepolis car park from which cross-border bus lines left. At 6.30 am, there was no parking space left, ”recalls Pierrick Grall.
There remains the “false mystery” which surrounds this very low daily occupancy rate with regard to the mass of subscribers. Unsurprisingly, the explanation lies in the disease of the moment, the Covid and its impact on the daily life of cross-border workers: “Many are teleworking and only go to Luxembourg for a few days a week. From where this impression of emptiness, summarizes simply the chief of staff. At the end of the crisis, Metzange’s P + R will undoubtedly prove to be more photogenic.
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