The ORELA experiment on the neutron charge radius has been reevaluated. The neutron transmission of liquid thorogenic 208 Pb with the neutron time-of-flight method in the neutron energy range from 0.08 to 800 eV was measured. Additional studies on condensed matter effects for liquid Bi and liquid Pb have provided more accurate corrections resulting in smaller systematic uncertainties for the neutron-electron scattering length b ne. We have also reevaluated the transmission data on liquid Bi of Melkonian and co-workers. We have obtained values of b ne ϭ(Ϫ1.33Ϯ0.027Ϯ0.03)ϫ10 Ϫ3 fm for 208 Pb and b ne ϭ(Ϫ1.44Ϯ0.033Ϯ0.06)ϫ10 Ϫ3 fm for 209 Bi where for both results the two uncertainties denote the statistical and the systematic uncertainty, respectively. The results for 208 Pb and 209 Bi were found to be in good agreement. ͓S0556-2813͑97͒02610-1͔