Luxembourg and Belgium are pushing to get money from the EU's pandemic recovery fund to improve the widely maligned railway link between their two European capitals, as the bloc works to boost environmentally friendly railway traffic across borders.
Transport Minister François Bausch and his Belgian counterpart George Gilkinet requested the funds in a joint letter on 14 January to European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans.
Currently, the journey takes around three hours over a track that winds through the hills of the Ardennes, with frequent stops along the way, compared to just over two hours it takes to get to Paris on a train that often hits speeds of more than 300 km/hr.
The slow journey – on regional trains not equipped with Wifi or a restaurant car – is a grievance for the many EU officials who regularly travel back and forth between the two capitals, both of which are home to numerous EU institutions.
Planned works on the trajectory will also improve cross-border freight traffic, Gilkinet said in a joint press release with Bausch on Monday.
Belgium said last year it was working on cutting the travel time, initially by 20 minutes, and then by an hour in five years' time.