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ANTWERPEN
 Flandern . Belgium

Antwerpen Premetro Network

 System

logoAntwerpen (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 an underground section 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. Total length of underground section in service is 7.6 km with 11 underground stations. The Antwerpen trams have 1000 mm gauge, station platforms are 95 m long. The network is operated by De Lijn.

Zwijndrecht © R. Schwandl Astrid © R. Schwandl Diamant © R. Schwandl Groenplaats © R. Schwandl Handel © R. Schwandl

 History

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

1 April 1996: Opera - Astrid - Sport (3.2 km)

4 March 2006: Schijnpoort - ramp - Ten Eekhovelei (Line 5)

Sport © R. Schwandl Meir © R. Schwandl

 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).

 Practical Info

Opera © R. Schwandl4:30 - 1:00

Headway: 4-6 min. peak, 8-15 min rest of the day

- FARES (2006, in Euro)

Single - 1.20
10 Trips - 8.00
Day Pass - 5.00

Monthly Pass (Omnipas) - 25.50

 Links

De Lijn (Official page)

Antwerpse Tram At Wikipedia.nl

Scanned central tram map showing premetro stations (290K, 1999)

 

Diamant © Denis Kabanov Fr. van Eeden © Denis Kabanov
Photos © Denis Kabanov

 

 


2004 © UrbanRail.Net by Robert Schwandl.