The Unique Railways of Brussels

Brussels is the centre of the European Union, and is also the centre of a unique public transit concept — the premetro. Let’s talk all about Brussels and its metro, premetro, & railways and the incredible and weird ways they've shaped this important city!

Map Data © OpenStreetMap contributors

[NotJustBikes]

I love the tram and metro system of Brussels; it was probably our favourite part about living there. The RER has a lot of potential, but they really need to run more frequently. I really hope they can make that a reality.

The one thing they need to improve though is the ticketing. It's a very dated system. And I hate the double fare gates! The last time I was there I got stuck in one due to some kind of malfunction and I needed to call for a staff member to get me out!

Eventually I'm going to have to get back to Brussels for long enough to make a proper video about all the changes that have happened there since we left in 2013. There are still WAY too many cars, but things have improved substantially!

[Squizie]

Something you may have missed, but literally today was the inauguration of a new tram line 10 towards the north of the city, replacing the current tram line 3 in the north-south premetro tunnel (revenue service starts monday). The tram network itself is expanding just as well, and at a much quicker pace than the metro. The metro extension has it's fair share of troubles, sadly enough.

[Thomas-gsug]

As a Belgian, thank you ! I hope our country is going back in the direction of great transit like it used to be with trains going to every cities and interurban trams going in every villages and small towns (SNCV/NMVB) of the country. I wish we'd build back those tracks in rural areas with modern tram-trains. The kusttram that you covered, aswell as the Charleroi metro, were part of this giant interurban network

[maxbenchip]

You are right on time about Brussels ! The all new Tram Line 10 have just been inaugurated by the King today !

[nee__]

As a frequent user of the system, thanks for your amazing explanation!

[Theonintendo]

Yes ! Slay Brussel ❤the heart of Europe and an under appreciated metro ❤

[LiteBulb]

I grew up in an area with almost no public transit and then studied abroad in Brussels in college because the woman I had a crush on was doing so...errr, I mean, because I had heard about all of its beauty and historic significance. Yeah, that's it 😂.

Seriously, the woman gave me the let's just be friends speech well before the study abroad semester, but I ended up falling in love with public transportation in Brussels. It was fascinating to me that I could get from one side of the city to the other underground in a short time. Planning the best route to get somewhere by public transport before Google Maps existed was a challenge I happily accepted. And trains and trams were just so much fun to be on. It's a love I still have to this day :).

When I was there in 1998, the numbering was much different. The metros were numbered 1a (from the SE side of town, through the central area, to the Atomium area on the NW), 1b (from the E side of town to the SW, sharing track with the 1a through the center), and 2 (the loop around the center, except it wasn't a loop yet because the last bit on the northwest side of the loop hadn't been built yet.) The metro stations didn't yet have screens telling you how long it would be until the next train arrived; you just had to wait. Trams that went through the Premetro didn't get low numbers; for example, I frequently took what was then the 23 route through the eastern Premetro as the family I was staying with lived on that line.

I would literally spend Saturdays taking public transit to areas I hadn't been. I had a map of the system (remember when you could get printed maps at stations?) on my wall and marked off the routes as I took them. Looking back, this wasn't actually the wisest thing to do as it meant going through some pretty bad parts of town, but hey, I'm still here.

I haven't been back to Brussels since then, but I've been fortunate enough to visit and live in other cities with excellent transit systems in the last 25 years. But even though many of those cities have better systems than Brussels, you never forget your first love. Thanks for the memories!

P. S. Before anyone asks, yes, I am single, and yes, I know why I'm single 😁.

[maxwellszymanski]

You should have mentioned Tram 44, one of the most beautiful tram lines in the world running through a gorgeous forest 🌳Great video btw!!

[Ev-wjlm]

My telecom network lecturer last year was the Chief of transport at STIB (the public transport company) since 20 years and still going. He would always come in with his briefcase and his high vis jacket on, coming directly from the metro (hitching a ride in the driver cab). He had the big wrench-style metro keys on his key set and woud talk about metros every week during his lectures! Had loads of fun anecdotes, and we had several lectures canceled because he was travelling to visit Montreal or Istanbul metro networks.

[govaert]

For being a capital city that belongs to a country that is governed by a myriad of governments who are built on linguistic fault lines, the Brussels transport provider MIVB/STIB manages to be the best public transport provider of Belgium. I only hope the national railways and Flemish bus & tram service someday to be able to compete with the quality that MIVB/STIB offers.

[jdsonical]

the avid transport lovers should visit the Belgian railway museum located in the old Schaerbeek station building, Belgium built the first railway on the continent and the museum showcases it well. The whole thing takes 3hrs max to visit so if you have an afternoon to spare it is really recommended.

[dieterverschueren]

I just got back from a visit to the new Toots Tielemans station construction site on the car-free day. Excellent timing to stay in the transit-vibe.

[mdhazeldine]

Long overdue. I've only been to Brussels once (1996). I didn't love the city very much, but I WAS impressed by its transport system, especially the trams. Coming from the UK, at the time, we basically didn't have any trams, so it was a novelty for me to go on some. Great to see they've kept expanding it!

[TransportGeekery]

So glad you mentioned the old reversing at Beekkant. Creative junction solutions seem to be a Belgian specialty: now do Charleroi!

[yannickpeeters]

One of the biggest transit problem Brussels has is actually the state structure of Belgium. Brussels is a small region inside Flanders. Transit is something the regions are responsible for (except trains, which are nationalised, but some want that to change too). This is the reason there is no metro to the airport (which is in Flanders). If you take a closer look all the metros and almost all trams stop at the cities regional boundary. Brussels wants to expand, but it can't. This makes a big transit problem because a lot of the wealthier workers live outside in the towns in Flanders. This means that every morning all those people commute to Brussels, of which a lot is done by car. If our state structure were different the public transport of Brussels would be able to serve those people too. Irony is that most of those towns in Flanders don't want anything to do with Brussels

[Didipan]

As a Brusseler, I absolutely love watching a video of a foreigner talking about the transport system the city I live in has developped lol

[BenchFox_]

Went to the inauguration of the new tram extension into Neder-over-Heembeek today. I bought a tram stop sign.

[maarchalk]

2:58 Fun Fact they opened a new tram line in the north of Brussels today!

[ishbxr]

Reece, can you cover the Nuremberg U-bahn? Nuremberg is one of the smallest cities to have full-fledged heavy-rail metro system, and it is also interesting, why it was decided to build a proper metro here, whereas in Stuttgart, which is bigger in population, it was the stadtbahn system that was built.

[josiahsaquiton]

The fact that I was just hoping that you make a Brussels video yesterday, and now there's a Brussels video