Maastricht

De LijnAn impression of what the tram line should have looked like

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 22:38

The municipality of Maastricht wants to take Flanders to court because the Flemish government refuses to repay a sum of millions to Maastricht. This concerns an amount that Maastricht and the province of Limburg have invested in a tram connection between Maastricht and Hasselt in Belgium.

Last year, Flanders canceled plans for the tram connection between the capital of Limburg and Hasselt. Maastricht and Limburg are said to have already invested 19.6 million and believe that Flanders is contractually obliged to repay that amount now.

However, Flanders does not respond to this, according to a letter that Mayor Wim Hillenaar (CDA) of Maastricht sent to the municipal council today.

In the letter, the municipality writes that it wants to go to the Maastricht court because the discussions in the past year have yielded nothing.

In a response, the Flemish Minister of Mobility Lydia Peeters said that Flanders has not yet received an official letter. “We are awaiting official communication and will then further deliberate on any further steps.”

Headache file

The plans for an express tram between Maastricht and Hasselt date from 2004. The tram line was intended, among other things, to relieve car traffic in the cities.

Due to setbacks and delays, the project has become a headache for Flemish, Maastricht and Limburg politics in recent years. The tram was in serious danger more expensive than initially thought.

The end date by which the line had to be completed also kept being postponed. The tram line was initially scheduled to open in 2010. That date later shifted from 2017 to 2024.

Minister Peeters decided to make the decision last year. She no longer liked the tram, partly because of the costs of 300 million euros that the Belgians had to pay.

Not a good handling

Since Flanders stopped the project, Maastricht has had difficulty handling the project costs. The municipality wants to prevent Maastricht taxpayers from being charged for the costs put into the project.

Maastricht already received 3 million euros back from Flanders this year. These were costs that the municipality had paid because part of the tram line in Maastricht had to be shortened. However, the remaining 19.6 million euros has not yet been received.

2023-11-21 21:38:54


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