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Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is also one of the official capitals of the European Union with most institutions having their headquarters here. The city (about 1 million inh.) is right in the centre of the country and bilingual: French and Flemish, the Belgian variant of Dutch, and therefore many station names are also bilingual (the map above omits Dutch names for better legibility).

The Brussels tram system includes important sections of tunnels used by various tram routes, notably the central north-south route (lines 3, 4) and the outer ring line (line 7, 25). This tunnels were built for future conversion to metro operation and are therefore referred to as 'Premetro'.

~ 138 km
- 15 lines (+ 4 evening-only lines)
- 1435 mm gauge
- rolling stock: PCC cars (-1978); Tram 2000 (Bombardier/GEC Alsthom; 1993-95); Flexity Outlook (Bombardier; 2005-)

The Brussels Tram is operated by STIB/MIVB (Societé des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles) also responsible for a 4-line metro network 40 km long.

Christoph Groneck & Dirk M. Stein: METROS IN BELGIEN - Metros in Belgium. - R. Schwandl Verlag, 12/2009, ISBN 978-3936573268
More info

Ludo Bekkers: L'art dans le métro, Bruxelles : vingt ans d'art monumental