For several days, Thomas
is going through a strange struggle. And he’s probably not the only one. This French cross-border worker, who lives near Longwy, works in a company in Belval and uses the P+R Belval daily to be able to park. But since the start of the week, Thomas has had to find a fallback solution. The reason: his subscription, which expired at the end of November, could not be renewed. Consequence: “Instead of paying 85 euros per month for my subscription, I had to take out a day ticket when I realized it. I left my car in the parking lot for 10 hours, which cost me 12 euros. Over a month, it costs me around 240 euros if I park there every day,” he explains toComma
.
So, the cheapest solution available to him at the moment is to… take out a subscription elsewhere. “For the moment, I have a subscription to Belval Plaza which costs me 175.50 euros per month. “It’s more than double what I paid before,” he explains.
What happened?
Thomas looks back on the moment he realized the change: “I saw that my subscription expired on November 29, but as it was a Friday and I intended to do it on Monday, I waited that day. But on Monday, while trying to renew, I read on the CFL application that it was no longer possible.
The explanation is as follows, according to Thomas: “The CFL have decided to reduce the number of subscriptions available to favor public transport users,” explains Meurthe-et-Mosellan. The change in the way the car park operates was “to the detriment of ‘old’ subscribers”, for the cross-border worker.
How the CFL will evolve over the coming years
In this situation, Thomas decided to take out a subscription to Belval Plaza which costs him 90 euros more per month. “But for the moment, it’s the safest solution, and at least I know that my car is safe and that saves me from having to pay every day,” he adds.
Thomas also chose this solution for convenience. “I could have parked at the Rodange P+R, which is equidistant from the Belval one from my home and which is free for 24 hours, but that makes me spend more than an hour in transport in total “, he specifies. The situation may therefore concern many cross-border workers, both Lorraine and Walloon.
A change in operation assumed by the CFL
Contacted, the CFL confirmed having had several reports similar to that of Thomas. “We have actually received some feedback from customers who were unable to renew their subscription as the number of available subscriptions was exhausted,” they wrote in a response to our editorial staff.
147 additional parking spaces available again in the P+R Belval-Université
Therefore, “to avoid illegal parking potentially presenting a danger to all users (for example the obstruction of traffic lanes by parking in the second line) inside the car park in the event of high occupancy, the CFL have decided to reduce the number of monthly subscriptions available depending on the parking occupancy rate,” the company continues in its response. According to the CFL, “this measure applies in the spirit of continuing to promote the modal shift from car to train and to continue to guarantee safety inside the car parks”.
What could change for parking
The CFL explains that “various actions have also been taken in the context of the Belval-Université car park situation”. For example, “the occupancy rate is monitored very closely to continue to adapt the number of monthly subscriptions that we can offer to our customers”.
P+R of Belval: no complete reopening before July 2025
At the same time, “we continue to systematically and dynamically display the number of parking spaces available on our P+R CFL application and on external displays on site. These actions will continue while awaiting the finalization of the rehabilitation work on the areas affected by the fire (which ravaged part of the P+R on February 20, Editor’s note),” adds the railway company. “The complete opening of the parking spaces of this P+R is planned for the end of 2025/beginning of 2026,” she estimates.
the first name of our interlocutor was changed at his request.
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