Brussels Public Transport Network, Belgium

The Brussels public transport network covers a total distance of 430km; the metro alone covers 40.5km. The Brussels Metro is operated by Societé des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles (STIB), which is also responsible for a 133km tram network (12km of which is in tunnels). Brussels has a substantial tram system serving the city centre and the suburbs. These trams are at their speediest when they go underground to form what is sometimes called the pre-metro. This part of the system runs underneath the heart of the city from Bruxelles-Nord, through De Brouckère and Bourse, to Bruxelles-Midi, Porte de Hal and on underneath St Gilles. Trams run throughout the network every seven minutes between 05:00 and 01:00, seven days a week. 500 buses also travel the streets of Brussels. In addition to the STIB network there are local trains, run by Belgian Railways, which connect different parts of the inner city and the outskirts.

Because of the city's central location in Europe and its importance to the European community much capital investment has been made in its public transport infrastructure. There are currently ongoing expansions and upgrades to the Metro, tram, bus and rail networks. Brussels is also a central hub in the European high-speed rail network and main lines that radiate from the city are undergoing construction and upgrading as part of a Europe-wide initiative to link all the countries' capital cities with a high-speed rail network.

BRUSSELS METRO EXPANSION

The Brussels Metro started as a pre-metro system, with important sections of underground tunnels used by various tram routes. The first tram tunnel, now metro Line 1, was opened in 1969 between Schuman and De Brouckere. It was followed a year later by a second section between Madou and Port de Namur, now known as Line 2.

Line 1, running east to west, started operation as a full-blown metro line in 1976 and has been extended in stages with two branches, Lines 1A and 1B, at either end. A 2.7km extension of Line 1B from Bizet to Erasme Hospital opened on 15 September 2003. The €100 million project can carry 10,000 passengers at peak hours. The new stations are La Roue/Het Rad, CERIA/COOVI, Eddy Merckx and Erasme/Erasmus. They are all built at ground level and are all equipped with special elevators for people with reduced mobility. This facility will be progressively introduced in all metro stations in Brussels. All stations have a central platform which is directly accessible from street level without a mezzanine. There is a 1,200-space car park at CERIA/COOVI station.

In September 2000, an extension of Line 2 from Clemenceau to Beekkant via Delacroix was announced. The extension to Delacroix is to be completed by June 2005. It is planned that in 2007 the entire network will be restructured:

• Line 1A: Herrmann-Debroux - Erasme
• Line 1B: Stockel/Stokkel - Gare de l'Ouest/Weststation
• Line 2A: Simonis - Arts-Loi/Kunst-Wet - Gare de Midi/Zuidstation - Gare de l'Ouest/Weststation - Simonis - Roi Baudouin/Koning Boudewijn
• Line 2B: as 2A, but only from Simonis to Simonis

NEW ROLLING STOCK

In October 2003, STIB placed an order with Bombardier Transportation for the delivery of 46 Bombardier FLEXITY Outlook trams for the city of Brussels. The contract includes the overhaul and the corrective maintenance of the vehicles' bogies and propulsion equipment for a period of 15 years. The total value of the contract is approx. €125 million, including €106 million for the vehicles and €19 million for the maintenance services. Within this agreement STIB has the possibility to order further batches of a minimum of ten vehicles per series during a period of five years. The delivery of the 100% low-floor trams is expected to take place between June 2005 and February 2007.

Production of the vehicles will be undertaken by Bombardier mainly at its facility in Bruges, Belgium; the bogies will be produced at its Siegen site and the propulsion at its Mannheim facility, both in Germany.

CAR SHARING

The first four car-sharing stations in Brussels were opened in May 2003. This project, called Cambio, was developed jointly by Taxistop (a non-profit organisation) and STIB. Carsharing is a system in which a number of cars are placed in several areas in the city (or cities) at the disposal of the members of the car-sharing system. These members can use one of the cars whenever needed for a small fee. The expense depends on the use and the individual user does not have to worry about the maintenance of the car, the insurances or other paperwork. Surveys have shown that each car in the car-sharing scheme has the potential to replace between four and ten private cars. Brussels is the fourth city in Belgium to implement such a scheme.

FARE INTEGRATION

In February 2003, the public transport companies operating networks in the Brussels metropolitan area (STIB, De Lijn, TEC and the national railway SNCB) introduced fare integration. Passengers can now use a single ticket on all transport networks in the city.

NEW BUS ROUTES AND AN ANTI-FRAUD MEASURE

On 21 March 2003, STIB launched the first night bus line in Brussels. This route, which operates on Friday nights, provides a service every half an hour from 00:30 to 03:00. The line links the city centre with the south-eastern part of the city where the university is located.

The new bus Line 8 (Citybus) was created on 6 December 2003 for a trial period in the Pentagon, the historical and commercial heart of Brussels. Operating daily until 15 January, the Citybus links together the main shopping areas and several off-road parking areas. Access to the Citybus is free. If successful, this service could become permanent from mid-2004.

To fight increasing levels of fraud on the bus services, it was decided to re-introduce access by the front door to two bus routes, including one serving the airport. This procedure was originally given up in 1980.

REGIONAL EXPRESS RAILWAY FOR BRUSSELS

Every day, 350,000 people travel into Brussels for work or study; the majority of these trips are made using individual cars. This generates major traffic jams on the roads towards Brussels and also heavily increases traffic congestion inside the capital.

In order to offer a credible alternative to people commuting by car, there is an accepted need for a dense network of public transport spanning an area of 30km from Brussels and offering good frequencies. The solution to this is a regional express railway (RER). It is believed that this goal can be achieved by using mainly the existing railway network in and around Brussels and by adding new bus services in segregated lanes.

The majority of jobs in Brussels are filled by people commuting from one of the two Belgian regions outside the city (the Flemish and the Walloon regions); this makes a transport solution difficult to reach, as it requires co-ordination between several political authorities (the Belgian federal government and three regional governments) and all the transportation companies involved (SNCB/NMBS, STIB/MIVB, De Lijn and TEC).

In 1999, the Walloon, Flemish, Brussels and federal governments reached an agreement on the project. A further step was reached in 2001 when the federal government agreed to fund the extensions of railway infrastructure over 12 years, for a total investment of €2 billion.

This project will mean the purchase of 500 two-level cars so as to enable a doubling of the number of passengers arriving in the Brussels stations by train. The estimated cost for the new rolling stock is €825 million. The project also foresees the creation of a dozen new stations in the central part of the metropolitan area. Additional costs include €525 million for tracks and €150 million for tunnel construction.

The new RER routes will be operated by SNCB. The first two RER lines are expected to be operational in 2005-2006.