Routes
There are 17 routes totalling 133.4 km, serving most points of the compass, and including two partial ring routes. These have a very varied feel, including street running through narrow streets in working class districts (lines 81 and 83), cobbled central reservation, reserved track through parkland and woods (44), and signal-controlled running in tunnels (the premetro). There are even some short stretches of gutter running (18). Almost all trams are double-ended and all are double-sided, and some stub termini remain (4, 51), although most have loops. The route pattern shows some notable gaps, particularly along major radial routes, because these were originally served by a separate tram system, the national network of buurtspoorwegen/tramways vicinaux. These had a track gauge of one metre, as against the Brussels standard gauge, and so the tracks could not easily be taken over when the lines were progressively closed from the 1960s onwards.
The complementary routing of vicinal and urban tracks and the replacement of key lines by metro has led to some peculiar track layouts, for instance at the Barrière de St-Gilles/Bareel St-Gillis. Of the seven roads that meet at this circular junction, all originally contained tramlines, whereas today only three do. To negotiate a sharp turn, route 18, until it was closed on 1 July 2007, had to make a 270-degree turn on its journey away from the city centre, looping round and crossing its own path.
A further peculiarity is that under the South station, the premetro and metro tracks both swap from running on the right to running on the left where they run parallel to provide cross-platform interchange between the two lines. This serves no apparent purpose, but may be because main line trains in Belgium run on the left. Trams cross back to the right under Place Bara but the metro stays on the left as far as the Roi Baudouin terminus.
There is no system of tram priority at traffic lights, but the track layout is used to avoid hold-ups on route 92 at the Ma Campagne and Place Janson crossroads, which lie 300 metres from each other on the Chaussée de Charleroi/Charleroisesteenweg. Here, there is lateral space for only one track in a raised central reservation. Both pairs of rails swerve to the right approximately 100 metres in front of the junction on either side, so that the tram occupies the main traffic lane, blocking cars. Having passed the crossroads, the rails swerve back to the left.
Between 2006 and 2009 a phased transformation of the tram network took place, with the aim of improving regularity and relieving overcrowding. As part of this the premetro service between North station and Albert was restructured with fewer lines passing through it, but at more regular intervals. These routes use the new longer Bombardier trams. The major part of the North-South Axis (from Lemonnier to Rogier) is now used only by lines 3 and 4 during the day. These lines have been branded Chrono. Tram lines 55 and 56 from Schaerbeek (north of Brussels) that used to use the North-South Axis now terminate at Rogier and nearby Gare du Nord/Noordstation respectively.
As part of that plan, line 52 has been replaced by line 3 in the North (from the Brussels-South railway station to Thomas and from Van Praet to Esplanade), and by lines 56 (from Rogier to Princess Elisabeth), 82 (from Drogenbos to Lemonnier) and 32 in the South.
An already implemented part of this plan was the creation of tramway lines 24 and 25 in April 2007. Line 25 goes from Rogier to the Boondael/Boondaal railway station following the route of the ex-line 90 from Rogier to Buyl, then leaves the outer ring towards the Université Libre de Bruxelles campus of Solbosch. The (somewhat older) new line 24 strengthens the tram presence on the outer ring during daytime; it went from the Schaerbeek/Schaarbeek railway station to Vanderkindere in Uccle.
On March 14, 2011 lines 24 and 23 merged to create the new eastern semicircular line 7 running almost entirely on its own right of way. The new service runs from Heizel/Heysel in the north to Vanderkindere in the south.
Read more about this topic: Brussels Trams
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