Limburg and Maastricht start court case against Flanders for abandoned tram plans

The province of Limburg and the municipality of Maastricht are starting a lawsuit against the Flemish Region of Belgium, and Flemish transport company De Lijn over the conflict surrounding the canceled tram line between Maastricht and Hasselt. The project was stopped in 2022 by the Flemish Region, also known in English as Flanders and in Dutch as Vlaanderen. By that point, the Dutch municipality and province had already spent nearly 20 million euros on the public transport line.

"From the moment of unilateral termination, we as both Dutch partners (municipality of Maastricht and province) have taken initiatives to reach satisfactory agreements with Vlaanderen in an amicable manner through formal and informal consultations," wrote Jasper Kuntzelaers (PvdA). He represents Limburg as the province's deputy in charge of mobility policy.

In January, the province announced that Vlaanderen had until March 1 to come up with "satisfactory proposals" for a resolution. However, this did not happen, pushing the province and municipality to take legal action.

The two governments said they remain open to proposals from Vlaanderen, Kuntzelaers wrote.