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TheBrussels Premetro (French:Prémétro de Bruxelles;Dutch:Brusselse premetro) is anetwork consisting of lines4,10,7 and25 of theBrussels Tram system. It is astandard-gauge system which runs inunderground sections in the city centre and further out on surface lines. The network is operated bySTIB/MIVB, the local public transport company.
Thepremetro tunnels have been built to allow for eventualupgrade to heavy metro, so most of the platform is high, and is connected to the street (at least in the upward direction) byescalator. At some stations,lifts have been installed, but there is a cutout section taking the level down to one foot above ground to board the trams. The three steps this entails make life difficult for passengers with baby buggies or suitcases, even though the new low-floor trams are accessible to wheelchair users.[1]
Growing traffic congestion led to plans to build reserved tracks for trams, and in the city centre to put them in tunnel. In 1957, the first tunnel was opened near the congested Place de la Constitution/Grondwetplein, between Brussels-South railway station and Lemonnier.
The network was planned in the 1960s to become afully underground network, yet first plans only mention regularunderground tram tunnels.[2] At its inauguration on 17 December 1969, thepremetro tramways ran on the line betweenDe Brouckère andSchuman,[3] which was later, in 1976, converted into the common section of the first two metro lines. These lines were then considered a single line with two branches, between De Brouckère andTomberg and De Brouckère andBeaulieu.[4] In 2008 the premetro lines 3 and 4 became "Chrono lines", with a near metro service.[5]
Line 4 andLine 10 are tram lines using theNorth–South Axis tunnel which crosses the city centre fromBrussels-North viaBrussels-South toAlbert. Line 4 runs from Brussels-North to Stalle Parking in the south. Line 10 runs from Hôpital Militaire/Militair Hospitaal in the north to Churchill in the south. This North–South Axis is being upgraded to metro service; works have begun in 2019, including north-eastward prolongation of the metro tunnel, and the transition to conventional metro is foreseen for 2030.[7]
Line 7 is the main line of theGreater Ring, replacingTram 23 andTram 24 as of 14 March 2011. It services theHeysel/Heizel, runs underLaeken Park and then via the Greater Ring to the terminus of Line 10 to terminate one stop later at Vanderkindere for connections to tram lines 4, 10 and 92. The somewhat shorterLine 25 also runs the Greater Ringpremetro, but with different termini at both ends, and the southern terminus connecting toBoondael/Boondaal railway station.
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