[...]
The
Brussels Metro (
French:
Métro de Bruxelles,
Dutch:
Brusselse metro) is a
rapid transit system serving a large part of the
Brussels-Capital Region of
Belgium. It consists of four conventional metro lines and three
premetro lines. The metro-grade lines are M1, M2, M5, and M6
[1] with some shared sections, covering a total of 39.9 kilometres (24.8 mi),
[1] with 59[
citation needed] metro-only stations. The premetro network consists of three
tram lines (T3, T4, and T7) that partly travel over underground sections that were intended to be eventually converted into metro lines.
[5]Underground stations in the premetro network use the same design as metro stations. A few short underground tramway sections exist, so there is a total of 52.0 kilometres (32.3 mi) of underground metro and tram network.
[1]There are a total of 69 metro and premetro stations as of 2011.
[1]
Most of the common section of the first two metro lines (between
De Brouckère metro station and
Schuman station) was inaugurated on 17 December 1969 as premetro
[6] tramways, converted in 1976 to the first two lines of the metro, then considered as one line with two branches, between De Brouckère and
Tomberg and De Brouckère and
Beaulieu.
[3] The metro is administered by
STIB/MIVB (
French:
Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles,
Dutch:
Maatschappij voor het Intercommunaal Vervoer te Brussel). In 2011, the metro was used for 125.8 million journeys,
[7] and it was used for 138.3 million journeys in 2012.
[2] The metro is an important
means of transport, connecting with six
railway stations of the
National Railway Company of Belgium, and many tram and bus stops operated by STIB/MIVB, and with
Flemish De Lijn and
Walloon TEC bus stops.
[...]
Premetro
Line 3 and
Line 4 are tram lines using the
North-South Axis tunnel which crosses the city center from
Brussels-North railway station to
Brussels-South railway stationand
Albert premetro station. Line 3 runs from Churchill in the south to Esplanade in the north. Line 4 runs from Brussels-North railway station to the Stalle car park in the south.
Line 7 is the main line of the greater ring, replacing
Tram 23 and
Tram 24 as of 14 March 2011. It services the
Heysel/Heizel, runs under the Laeken Parc and then via the greater ring to the terminus of Line 3 to terminate one stop later at
Vanderkindere for connections to tram lines 3, 4 and 92.
[...]
Map of the Metro Network of the Belgian capital Brussels. The so called PREMETRO sections, which are shown by blue, thinner lines, are underground sections of the tram network and continue further above ground, which is not shown on the map. There are two more PREMETRO-sections which cover only one station each, so I decided not to display them for a clearer view. Stations with two names have different names in the French and Dutch language. The French name is always shown above the Dutch one. Stations with only one name don't have an expression in the other language or both names are the same.
