Avenue Louise - The "Louise Bottleneck"

The "Louise Bottleneck"

The 250-meter (830 ft)- long part of Avenue Louise between the Louise and Stephanie squares is called "le goulet Louise" ("the Louise bottleneck"). With two tramway lines and thousands of cars sharing this narrow segment of the avenue, large traffic jams occur here during rush hours. The problem was already obvious in the early 1980s, so a tram tunnel under the bottleneck was built along with the metro station on Louise Square. However, construction was abandoned toward its end due to protests of local businesses fearing losses if patrons were to be diverted through a tunnel.

The nearly-completed, vast tramway tunnel under the Louise bottleneck remains unused as of 2009. Various solutions to the traffic problem have been considered. One proposes pedestrianizing the whole segment, with trams running on the surface and only delivery vehicles authorized at certain hours. Another, much more costly, involves finishing the tunnel and diverting all trams underground.