Thread by @fuenareva

Recently it was announced that, after decades of neglect, the Charleroi Metro is getting its 5th line built and trams renovated.

A breeze of fresh air for a "metro" that seems frozen in the 80s.

Let me show you some pics of Belgium's most bizarre public transport network 🚋🚇🇧🇪

[I took these pics on a cold winter day of early 2021. Perhaps some things have changed. I doubt so.]

To give a little bit of context, the Charleroi Metro, as expected on the country of surrealism 🇧🇪 is obviously not a Metro

It's clearly a light rail transit

Today's network is made up of 3 branches that come out of a central loop. One of the branches loops both ways, so 2 lines

It all starts in the 60s. Belgium plans 5 major metros. Brussels, Antwerpen, Gent, Liège and Charleroi.

Local issues in Gent & Liège make them refuse their metros, and their funds are then reallocated to Antwerpen and Charleoi.

Remember, this is pre-federal Belgium. The central state drafted plans, but budget had to be balanced north/south in a 50/50 ratio. "Wafelijzerpolitiek". If a project was given funds in the north, a similar project was also funded in the south. Regardless of the actual needs…

And that's how in the late 60s, Charleroi gets a mega-metro project of 8 branches, perhaps a bit too ambitious for a city of its size.

And since its inception the whole project went downhill.

To begin with, the city itself, started a decay in the 70s, with a big part of its heavy industry closing down.

What once was the economic powerhouse of Belgium slowly became a decadent postindustrial city.

The plan was already outdated, even when little had been constructed.

Furthermore, the "8 branch project" followed the urbanist principles of the time. Trams would go underground, so they wouldn't disturb cars.

Lines towards the suburbs would follow newly built motorways, which lead to many stations, pretty much, in the middle of nowhere.

A final factor for the failure of the "metro" in the 80s: political fighting.

Metros were to be operated by the SNCV (the leftover of the +5000 km network of narrow gauge trams in Belgium).

Local transport operstor STIC had no interest in trams/metros.

A recipe for failure.

Anyways, enough historic chat and let me show you some pics.

Providence stop is perhaps where the contrast between "project" and "reality" is best seen.

A "metro" station in the middle of Charleroi's heavy industry, much of it dismantled. The demand just isn't there anymore.

As mentioned before, the western branch (current lines 1/2) was built first, not necessarily because of higher demand, but rather because a new motorway was being built there.

It also crossed highly industrialised areas.

But stops where near the motorway, but far away from the actual towns, and the economic decay of the 80s ment that no new housing estates were built near the stops, as previously expected.

A couple of stops further west, Morgnies.

A village with its very own metro station.

And mind you, as much as this place seems like an abandoned 80s project, this station gets a tiny 2-unit "metro" every 15 minutes on workdays.

Next stop, Leernes.

A tram stop in the "finest" 70s brutalism style.

A building that looks more like the abandoned filming set used for one of the early Star Wars films, rather than a tram stop in suburban Belgium.

A bit more of the spooky Leernes station.

This is one of the least used in the whole network. The centre of the town that it's supposed to serve, is 15 minutes away by foot.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to paradise.

Or at least the Belgian version of paradise:

Paradis, in the town of Fontaine-l'Évêque.

Another metro station built with high ambition and lots of 70s aesthetics.

The long platforms (probably for 6 car long trams) will never see a tram longer than the standard 2-car unit.

Anderlues Monument. End of the line.

The bidirectional units make the turnover rather easy.

In the town of Anderlues, the "metro" runs on the old SNCV "vicinal" tram tracks. Note the retractable step on the tram that allows street-level boarding.

Back in the central loop.

Beaux-Arts, one of the stations that serve central Charleroi.

It was opened in 1893. And probably has seen better days.

On the day I was there, there were more homeless people on the platform than actual metro users. Dirty and drugs. Not nice, at all.

Next stop. Waterloo.

I've been to many metro stations, all across Europe. This is probably the only one in which I felt grateful after I finally left. Really scary place.

Dirty, poorly lit, homeless people, fights, drugs. Add to that a confusing track/line setting…

Some more pics of Waterloo station, in central Charleroi.

It opened in 1992, I mean, it's not even that old. But it's in an appalling state.

Piges station, opened in 1980.

It's where the Gosselies "antenne" branches off from the M1/2.

In 1992 the Gilly branch opened.

In 1996 the loop was (almost) completed with the Parc extension.

The network wouldn't grow any more until 2012.

(Source diagram commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stad…)

Noticed how on the map there was another branch, to Centenaire station?

Built in the 1980s. Never opened due to politics fights between operators 🤦🏻‍♂️).

In the 90s when bus and tram was unified under TEC, it was juged to have little demand, and opening it was never considered.

In 2013, the northern branch opened (M3), even if roughly half of the route was already in use, but not for revenue service. Trams used it to reach the Jumet depot.

4 decades after opening the first stations, Charleroi got the latest addition to its "metro".

So that's the rather turbulent history of the Charleroi no-metro.

The positive news is that the Walloon govt has finally secured funds for the unused branch to open. EU recovery funds will be used to further extend the branch right up to the largest hospital in Charleroi. 👍🏼

Now into some quirky facts regarding Charleroi metro.

Obviously, the network has been considered one of Belgium's best example of "Great Useless Public Works" (grands travaux inutiles).

The public TV had a comedy show reporting on these useless projects
dailymotion.com/video/x3lyg6

Charleroi metro has the rather unique platform height of 55 cms. Unique in the world.

This was a decision taken considering the height of the old SNCV trams that would work for the metro. Funnily enough, in the 60s, money was budgeted for infraestructure, but not for new trams.

In the late 70s, the "BN trams" were ordered by the still-federal SNCV.

As mentioned before, wafelijzerpolitiek. Strict north/south balance. Half would go to Charleroi, half to the Kusttram.

Since they would have to fit both systems, a retractable step was added.

In total 106 were made and "obviously" half went to Charleroi, even if actually, not that many trams were needed for the relatively small metro of the time.

The surplus of units, linked to a general lack of control due to imminent dismantling of SNCV led to horrible management.

In the early 90s, when the TEC was created, 22 units (!!) were out of service or used for parts. 30 trams kept the network running to its bare minimum

Since then, TEC started to rescue these units, many simply rotting on depots. In the '94-'22 period, 16 of the 22 were recovered

Eventually these 16 + 30 trams were refurbished on the TEC Charleroi depot throughout the 90s - 00s

Only negative aspect: the "home-made" recovery method created technologically unique trams

That's why you'll almost never see double trams in Charleroi. They're incompatible 🤦🏻‍♂️😅

A final note on the future of these units. In 2018, TEC and Alstom signed a contract to fully renew (once again) 45 units.

The prototype was unveiled some weeks ago and looks really good! Doesn't look like the tram is over 40 years old! 😅

charleroi.be/actualites/de-…

But then why renew? Wouldn't it make more sense to get new trams? The same model used by @delijn in the Kusttram is being replaced by new trams…

Well, first of all, the trams are technically fine. They were made to last. Sure, refurbish the interior, but the mechanics are good

But most importantly… remember when I said the network was "unique in the world" with a 55 cm platform height? Well, voilà

No tram manufacturer has designs for such platf. level. They're simply not made. And ordering 45 trams uniquely designed from scratch would cost a fortune.

Nowadays, trams are either low-level (roughly 30 cm), with easy street access, or high level (+86 cm) like the German stadtbahns

Charleroi in the 70s, chose 55 cm to fit some old trams from the 50s in the newly built metro. And so, got stuck with its own unique standard, forever

So, for the next 20 years or so, the (refurbished) BN trams will stay in Charleroi 🚋🚋🚋

And that's the end of the thread.

Thanks for reading, and if you ever have the chance, do go to Charleroi and visit this quirky infrastructure that Carolos insist in calling a metro 😄

[Most of the nerdy, historical & technical info was taken from this month's edition of the amazing Tram2000 magazine (tram2000.be) which covers in-depth the past & future of the Charleroi Metro]

P.S. for the non-belgians: your #WordOfTheDay is "wafelijzerpolitiek" 😄

P.S. 2

Thanks to @_antlaz_, we can understand why Gent decided not to go ahead with their metro project. Sensible choice!

https://twitter.com/_antlaz_/status/1484068030418198528