2023-10-02 13:08:00
A problem which has once once more been raised in the Walloon Parliament. “This is not the first time that we have talked regarding this issue of access to Pairi Daiza in this parliament,” said Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés) to the attention of the Minister of Mobility, Philippe Henry ( Eco). But at some point the decision must come. You will never make people happy everywhere. Between motorists and residents, there will always be someone who feels wronged. However, there is nothing worse than today having everyone feeling frustrated, wronged and saying they no longer understand anything.”
The influx of visitors to Pairi Daiza Park is causing problems in the town of Lens: “Some were crossing a dirt road by car!”
Response from Minister Henry: the issue of northern access to the Pairi Daiza park is “priority” for the Walloon Government and its cabinet. “I also asked the administration to make this a priority as well,” he said.
In January, a road route was proposed. But in the responses from the various impacted municipalities, which arrived at the minister’s desk, the request to carry out a mobility study was formulated. “A framework contract has been drawn up to activate this type of local mobility studies of high regional interest,” specifies the minister. The submission of tenders for this contract is scheduled for October and will be followed by the award of the contract.”
Very quickly, the objective is to carry out a current diagnosis of the accessibility (car, train, bus, bicycle, walking, etc.) of the animal park, to project the state of the situation in 2030 and to define the solutions to implement.
A second entrance to the site planned to promote access by train
Currently, the train is not one of the most used means of transport to reach Pairi Daiza. Particularly because once they get off at Cambron-Casteau station, commuters have to walk a good quarter of an hour through the streets of the village to arrive at the main entrance to the animal park. Following a route which is hardly the easiest for a family with children, especially in a stroller. One of Pairi Daiza’s main targets. “The rail accessibility of the site was discussed with the SNCB during the last meeting of the Walloon Railway Committee,” confides Minister Henry. The creation of a second access to the site much closer to the station was discussed in order to organize, from there, pedestrian routes.”
Pairi Daiza: exponential growth… And many inconveniences
On the Notélé set, SNCB spokesperson Marianne Hiernaux confirmed that the railway company had been working since 2017 to put a plan in place to resolve the problem. In particular by improving the train offer (more journeys on busy days) and the infrastructure. “Since 2017, we have decided to double the offer to reach 32 trains per day on the Grammont/Ath line to and from Jurbise/Mons. We worked in parallel on the establishment tourist trains and have notably launched trains coming from Brussels. And we also did tests from other big cities like Ghent and Charleroi.”
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