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Antwerpen (Antwerp/Anvers) has some 800,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area. It is situated in the north of Belgium, in the Dutch speaking part of the country, by the river Schelde.

The Antwerpen rail network is a typical premetro network, i.e. trams that use underground sections in the city centre and run partly on separate right-of-way along streets in outer parts. A total of 15 km underground routes with 22 stations was originally planned.

Diamant station lies next to the Central Railway Station and has one platform on top of the other due to lack of space (lower platform 20 m deep).

The tunnel sections are served by tram lines 2, 3, 5 and 15. In Oct. 2007 line 6 was added, which uses the third leg of the triangle at Centraal Station between Diamant and Astrid. In Sept. 2012, line 9 was introduced, which uses the previously unused southern ramp south of Plantin station.

Total length of the underground sections in service is 7.6 km with 11 underground stations; station platforms are 95 m long. The network is operated by De Lijn.

- total network length - 76 km
- 12 lines
- 1000 mm gauge
- rolling stock: PCC trams (1960-1975); Siemens/Bombardier "Hermelijn" low-floor trams (1999-2007)

25 March 1975: Groenplaats - Diamant (1.3 km)
10 April 1980: Diamant - Plantin (1.5 km)
21 Sept. 1990: Groenplaats - Fr. van Eedenplein (1.5 km) under Schelde river
01 April 1996: Opera - Astrid - Sport (3.2 km)
04 March 2006: Schijnpoort - ramp - Ten Eekhovelei (Line 5)

Recent tram extensions:

14-04-2012: Karel Van Overmeirelaan/Schotensteenweg - Wijnegem/Fortveldstraat L5/L10 (3.9 km)
01-09-2012: Mortsel - Boechout L15 (3.2 km)
01-09-2012: Plantin - Cuperusstraat L9 (0.8 km)

 Projects

A second route was planned to run from the south-west to Opera and Astrid, then east. Construction of the eastern part started in 1977 (3.8 km), the north-eastern branch (2.1 km) was also built, but both sections were stopped in the 1980's due to financial problems.

In 2004, the so-called Pegasus plan includes the construction of several tram lines to the suburbs and adjacent towns. For this project at least one of the already built tunnels will be used (with stops only at Opera, Astrid, Drink and Morkhoven).