Only 43% of French cross-border workers say they are satisfied or very satisfied with their commute, compared with 55% of Belgians, 56% of Germans and 77% of Luxembourg residents.
Cross-border workers spend on average between 2h10 and 2h20 a day travelling, compared with 1h44 for residents, a gap directly linked to distance and congestion on cross-border routes.
This gap raises direct questions for the HR policies of Luxembourg companies when it comes to remote work, flexible hours and support for transport costs.
Conducted among 9,000 residents and cross-border workers under the scientific coordination of the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (Liser) and Cerema, with support from Ilres for data collection, the Luxmobil 2025 survey is set to form the basis of the future National Mobility Plan 2040. Eight years after the first edition in 2017, the country now counts nearly 90,000 additional residents and 50,000 additional cross-border workers, a context that makes the quality of daily commutes all the more sensitive an issue.
The finding leaves little room for doubt: satisfaction with the commute to work varies sharply depending on country of residence. As detailed in the official statement from the Ministry of Mobility, 77% of residents say they are satisfied or very satisfied with their commute, a figure that drops to 56% among German cross-border workers, 55% among Belgians and just 43% among the French. Paperjam confirms these figures and notes that French cross-border workers combine the longest average distance with the lowest satisfaction of any group surveyed.
For Minister Yuriko Backes, these results nonetheless confirm a positive trend at national level: "the results of Luxmobil 2025 show that the changes made in recent years are paying off. The shift towards alternatives to the car is progressing, public transport use is rising and sustainable mobility solutions are gaining ground," she said when presenting the survey. But this overall positive picture masks persistent disparities by country of residence, as Virgule points out in an article describing structural inequalities that start right at the commute.
Beyond perception, the raw figures speak for themselves. Residents spend an average of 1h44 a day travelling, a figure that rises to 2h10 for French cross-border workers, 2h19 for Belgians and close to 2h20 for Germans, according to consolidated data from the Ministry.
These gaps are largely explained by distance: according to an earlier government publication on commuting, French cross-border workers travel an average of 44.7 kilometres, Germans 48 kilometres and Belgians 53.9 kilometres, compared with 16.7 kilometres for residents.
Another notable finding, highlighted in Paperjam's analysis of the future National Mobility Plan 2040: when comparing only working populations, cross-border workers proportionally use public transport, notably the train via the Metz-Thionville-Luxembourg City line, more than residents do, a finding that nuances the image of systematic car dependency among cross-border commuters, even though the private car remains, for every group, the dominant mode of transport over long distances.
For Luxembourg companies, this satisfaction gap is more than just another statistic, it goes straight to the heart of talent retention in a labour market where 47% of jobs are held by cross-border workers. Remote work remains the most immediate lever for easing the perceived burden of the commute, as Claude Olinger, HR Director of Post Luxembourg, points out in Paperjam, noting that in his organisation's case, "the fact that our cross-border colleagues do not have to commute is a real advantage."
This approach nonetheless runs up against the tax and social security ceilings applicable to cross-border remote work, currently set at 34 days for Belgians, 29 days for French workers and 19 days for Germans.
Other HR levers deserve consideration alongside remote work: flexible hours to avoid peak traffic, financial support for public transport passes, the development of inter-company carpooling, and rethinking the location of workplaces relative to cross-border routes.
Still far from widespread, these measures could become a differentiating factor at a time of tight competition for certain skilled profiles, where quality of life tied to the daily commute increasingly weighs on career decisions.
Luxmobil 2025 sheds light on a reality that Luxembourg's overall attractiveness figures tended to obscure: satisfaction with the commute to work is far from uniform, and it deteriorates markedly as distance and car dependency increase, particularly for French cross-border workers.
These results will form the basis of the future National Mobility Plan 2040, due to be presented in 2027, but companies do not need to wait for tomorrow's infrastructure to act on the HR levers already available to them today. Structured remote work, flexible hours and support for transport costs stand out as concrete responses to a warning sign that the official figures no longer allow anyone to ignore.
What is the Luxmobil 2025 survey?
It is a national mobility survey conducted by the Ministry of Mobility and Public Works among 9,000 residents and cross-border workers, updating the 2017 edition and forming the basis for the future National Mobility Plan 2040.
Why are French cross-border workers the least satisfied with their commute?
They combine the longest average distance (44.7 kilometres) with a lengthy daily commute, which explains a satisfaction rate of only 43%, compared with 55% for Belgians and 56% for Germans.
What solutions can Luxembourg companies put in place?
Structured remote work, flexible hours, support for transport costs and inter-company carpooling are among the most concrete HR levers for easing the impact of the commute on cross-border workers.
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