Lines 124 and 161 of the Regional Express Railway (RER) may never become operational, due to lack of funds, l’Avenir reported on Saturday. Some scenarios say there could be up to 60 to 70 million euros missing to complete the project.
The RER project currently needs another 115 million euros to finish the work on lines 124 (Brussels-Nivelles) and 161 (Brussels-Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve). The new plans drawn up by the SNCB and Infrabel for these two lines will need more than 190 million euros altogether.
The work will be put on hold for four years, and there is no guarantee it will start again in 2019. “Some of the choices made in 2003 where unrealistic”, says the cabinet of Transport Minister Jacqueline Galant. There is no new budget for the RER in the pipeline.
Sarah Johanson (Source: Belga)
