De Kusttram | Travelling The Longest Tram Line In The World!

ROUTE: KNOKKE - DE PANNE
OPERATOR: DE LIJN
TRAM: CAF URBOS 3
COST: €7.50 ADULT DAY PASS
De Kusttram (The Coast Tram) is a service connecting the cities and towns along the coast between Knokke, 8.5km from the Dutch border and De Panne, 1.5km from the French border. At 67 kilometres (42 mi) in length, it is currently the world's longest tram line in operation. The line is built at 1,000 mm gauge. The Urbos 3 trams have a top speed of 70 kmph/43mph.
De Kusttram started out as part of the Belgian Vicinal tramway, a network of interurban trams that once covered the entire nation. The first section of the line opened in 1885 running between Ostend and Nieuwpoort.
The tram service is operated by De Lijn, the Flemish government-owned company that provides public bus and tram transport in Flanders. De Lijn began operating in 1991.
The 67-km (42-mi) journey through coastal Flanders takes slightly under two and a half hours non-stop. There are 67 stops between De Panne and Knokke.
As you may have guessed, I’m Tim. I’ve always had a love of travel and thanks to the magical KZbin thing I can share my travels with you, the unsuspecting viewer. Thank you so much for watching this video and supporting my channel. All your likes, dislikes, comments and subs are greatly appreciated. If you like what you watched please hit that Subscribe button!
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MUSIC
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#tram #trams #tramspotting #kusttram #belgium #ostende #travel #travelling #random #tramtrain #knokke #plopsalanddepanne #plopsaland

[@billyshearer1]

Not just his theories line was fantastic! 😂

[@Timstravels01]

Thank you! 😂

[@steve-marsh]

Great video and some nuggets of comedy genius in there as always. Never even knew about this record-breaking route. Aye, great value for money for you Tim (well done Mrs TT for actually funding this KZbin video) :)

[@Timstravels01]

Cheers Steve. Aye, that was a cheap day out for me and a great part of the world to explore.

[@davidcartwright5591]

Great review Tim and Mrs TT . I love trams ,have done so since as a kid I was taken on the famous Blackpool trams . We have the slowest and most expensive trams in the World here in Sydney , something that places them on the other end of the tram spectrum to this one . This tram experience is definitely on my bucket list . Cheers and my best wishes to you both 👍

[@Timstravels01]

Thanks David. It is well worth trying out.

[@anianoenrique2115]

Do you still have that monorail in Sydney? I was on that in 1996,

[@davidcartwright5591]

@@anianoenrique2115 . No , the monorail was taken out of service and the track and infrastructure dismantled some years ago . Typical Sydney dissatisfaction with what I thought was a good asset .

[@anianoenrique2115]

@@davidcartwright5591 I never knew it no longer existed. Dumb move, imho.

[@TravelSignal]

Nice one. Yet another item for the bucket list! And very well presented, especially the little jokes :)

[@Timstravels01]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@yagi3925]

De Haan aan Zee ("The Hen/Rooster on Sea") is not only the prettiest tram station along the entire line, it's also by far the loveliest and best preserved seaside resort on the whole Belgian coast. In most other resort towns, traditional Flemish buildings have been bulldozed and replaced with charmless concrete blocks.

[@Timstravels01]

It was a beautiful station. A highlight of the journey.

[@JonathanPorterfield]

Plopserland 😂 love it 😀

[@Timstravels01]

It seems very popular.

[@LetsMakeaTrip]

Nice one Tim. Some lovely station buildings on this line, I must admit, I wasn’t expecting much scenery-wise but I was surprised. Very informative too 👍

[@Timstravels01]

I was pleasantly surprised, the first stretch around Zeebrugge was grey but beyond that it was lovely. Ostend looked like somewhere worth visiting. Thanks so much for watching and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@yagi3925]

@@Timstravels01 Ostend is the informal capital of the Belgian coast. Its glory is now something of the past but it used to be among the poshest seaside resorts in the whole of Europe until the 1950s, visited by celebrities and royals, earning it the nickname "the queen of beaches". It used to be such a prestigious place that it became a sister city of Monaco. It was also nicknamed "the most British of Belgian cities", due to its ferry line with Dover and a sizeable British population (visit the James Ensor museum). All of this is now past glory (the end of the ferry services to GB with the opening of the Chunnel accelerated the decline) but there are still a few interesting places and buildings to be seen in Ostend and it's still by far the largest and the busiest city on the Belgian coast (actually, the only city, the other places being mere towns).

[@Timstravels01]

@yagi3925 I'd really like to see a bit more of Ostend and thank you for the background information. 👍

[@flyingmyles]

magnificent! what a great video, being a tram nerd this is something I've wanted to do for a while. The scenery along the route does look impressive too. Stand out item for me, what a weird colour choice for those seats....!!

[@flyingmyles]

Oh how could I forget..... I dread to think what Plopsaland is about🤔

[@Timstravels01]

Was Plopsaland an inspiration for the seat colour? Plopsaland...it's worth a Google.

[@Timstravels01]

It's well worth trying out. A great way to explore that part of Belgium. Ostend looked like exploring. So much to see so little time to see it.

[@flyingmyles]

@@Timstravels01 safe search on or off 😄 🤣

[@Timstravels01]

😂

[@anianoenrique2115]

Mr & Mrs Tim's Travels : you've made on old man very ugly. Not ugly, I meant happy. (Not that I'm not ugly, though!) I was a driver on De Kusttram for 3 years (1995 to 1997), and they were happy days. I even still had hair back then. I must say your pronunciation of the Flemish place names gets a 9 out of 10 from me. The way you pronounced 'De Haan Aan Zee' was pretty funny, but you got 'De Lijn' spot on ! Congratulations on picking out the most beautiful tram stop we've got there as well. Just one point of criticism : just as you are Scottish, we are Flemish, so you didn't travel the Belgian coast, you traveled the Flemish coast. And Gerardus Mercator was not Belgian, he was Flemish. He lived from 1512 to 1594 and the fiasco called Belgium only came into being in 1830,,,

[@Timstravels01]

Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed the video and put up with my pronunciations! Please forgive my lack of understanding regarding Flanders and Belgium, that was poor of me. We absolutely loved every minute we spent in Flanders. It was wonderful.

[@anianoenrique2115]

@@Timstravels01 At 3:10 you can see the depot I was assigned to when I was a tram driver. Your video has really brought back happy memories.

[@Timstravels01]

Thank you so much. I noticed that there were quite a few older trams in the depot. Are they occasionally used?

[@anianoenrique2115]

@@Timstravels01 My answer to your question seems to have disappeared, so here's another try. Two brothers worked for years (weekends only) to restore two old trams in the depot at Knokke. It took them over a decade to get it all done. Those old trams are used during an event at De Haan Aan Zee called 'Trammelant', which is a celebration of the time the tramline (and that beautiful tramstop) was first built. That event will take place this year on August 5th. People dress up in period clothing, there's vintage cars and bicycles, etc.

[@Timstravels01]

That sounds wonderful. August 5th you say…

[@matthewodwyer3615]

Plopsaland....maybe you could head there for a toilet review? 😂😂

[@Timstravels01]

Darn, missed a trick there. 🤣

[@doubledutch13]

Nice video Tim, I’ve driven the route twice, I fancy the tram though, interestingly I’ve always pronounced it “Nock”?? Good to be corrected 👍

[@Timstravels01]

There is every likelihood I'm pronouncing it wrong! The tram was great fun, well worth trying.

[@anianoenrique2115]

@@Timstravels01 Your pronunciation was not bad at all. You do have to pronounce the K at the beginning as you did, but you also have to pronounce the E at the end (same sound as the E in 'the').

[@Timstravels01]

I’m loving this education. Keep it coming!

[@doubledutch13]

@@Timstravels01 and there’s me thinking Kinockie is near Peeterheed (Clola) 😂

[@Timstravels01]

🤣👍🏻

[@user-ww7nb8zp7b]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@Timstravels01]

Thanks for watching!

[@gchecosse]

Charles Darwin also married his cousin, and Isaac Newton didn't marry, so the greatest scientist who married someone other than a cousin was...

[@Timstravels01]

Marie Curie