The Belgian City That Built A Metro Line... And Never Opened It

[@Squizie3]

Nice video, however there's even more crazy backstory as to why that one line never opened, even when it was fully completed. It had to do with Charleroi having two different transit agencies at the time, one for regional and one for urban transit. The lines to Châtelet (and Soleilmont) were built by the regional operator, while the rest of the network including the core section was built by the urban operator. You can clearly see where both sections met, since they couldn't even agree on which sides the trains had to run (!) so they built a crossover halfway the line (clearly visible at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="104">1:44</a>). When the line was finally finished, they were in disagreement about how to operate it since they didn't discuss it beforehand, and so the line couldn't open. The opening was postponed again and again, but eventually an agreement was never met... I can't think of a more Belgian story than this.

[@TheTimTraveller]

Oh wow this makes the story even better! Brilliant comment, thank you Squizie3 :) Do you mind if I pin this?

[@Squizie3]

@@TheTimTraveller I don't mind, I would love it ;)

[@meepsicle83]

@@Squizie3 you mean you don't mind (you are ok with Tim pinning the comment)? Just to make it clear :)

[@kawaiilotus]

I was literally going to say this is so like Belgium from the title alone but the backstory makes it even more wonderfully brilliant (it's a shame it hasn't opened though).

[@TheTimTraveller]

@@Squizie3 done! If I get time next week, I might even make a quick bonus video JUST to talk about the crossover - in which case you'll get a credit of course 👍

[@Pulsarstunes]

As a Belgian, i always explain the dutch and french speaking parts as an old married couple that always argues among themselves, until you ask why they don't simply split up. Then they suddenly unite and will argue with you instead.

[@TST0475]

As a Dutch person this works the same with Flemish people, we are always arguing but whenever someone mentions Wallonia we are best mates just so we can hate on Wallonians

[@ogamiitto8627]

​​@@TST0475 How come Dutch people even care about Wallonia ? I understand Flemish-Wallonians rivalry for historical, cultural, economical or whatever reasons, but is this Dutch-Wallonians rivalry only rely on a Dutch-Flemish solidarity based on a common language ? (naive question from France)

[@TST0475]

@@ogamiitto8627 It has to do with the differences between Dutch Speaking and French Speaking people, in The Netherlands when someone is foreign we immediatly switch to English, same as in Flanders, where they also immediatly need to switch to French if they meet a Wallonian. But Wallonians (same as a lot of French people) are quite stubborn and keep speaking French, even if someone doesnt know French. When i visited Wallonia back in 2019, even 20-30 year old people i met were too stubborn to move to another language than French, even though everyone gets Dutch, French and English in school. This really gets on Dutch peoples nerves, who like to switch immediatly whenever they need to. This mixed with some Wallonian towns being like Charleroi (another good example is Liege), being very poor and ugly cities after the fall of the steelworks and other industrial companies et cet. makes Wallonia have quite a bad reputation.

[@dutchuncle2716]

@@ogamiitto8627 Good question. As a Dutch person I can't say I care about Wallonia. Although I remember passing through Charleroi by train about 25 years ago and thinking that it was grimmest city I ever saw and couldn't imagine that anyone would want to live in that city by choice. Do French people care about Wallonia? Is there a rivalry or brotherhood?

[@Chloe-ch6mc]

@@TST0475 sadly its even worse now, Dutch is not even mandatory anymore in alot of schools in wallonia, then again the people I know in flanders would rather switch to English than French if they meet a walloon, or more likely try to avoid them in the first place

[@owl-arm7545]

A few years ago, my partner and I were driving around Belgium. We went to Charleroi and before finding somewhere to stay, we promptly got quite lost (not realising before leaving the UK that my satnav didn't work in Europe). We pulled up outside a building that didn't look like a hotel, yet had the word 'hotel' written on it. We popped in, to see if we could stay. It turned out to be a homeless hostel. The lady who ran it, Lorie, explained we couldn't stay, but said she knew of a cheap hotel. She tried to explain its whereabouts, but upon realising how complicated the set of directions would be, she popped into her office and gave us her satnav on the promise that we returned it the next day. An incredibly kind gesture to lend two strangers in good faith something that probably cost a penny or two. We used it to find the hotel, then the following day we went to the coal mine museum (which was fascinating), and the glass museum and then returned it to the hostel, much to the surprise of the majority of the residents, but not to Lorie! Sometimes people remind you that there is kindness in the world! We really could have used that satnav when we were trying to leave Gent.... Jeez!

[@PatrickBaele]

🤣🤣🤣

[@Shifftee]

Sounds like it was a "few DECADES ago" rather than years since who needs a whole ass navigation when we have Google maps, etc.?

[@MaraMara89]

@@Shifftee it probably depends on the data cost? I mean: google maps eat data (and phone battery) as crazy. So if OP planned to travel with navigation a lot - then navigation could be better. Also: in my country (quick research - in Belgium too) there is fine for using your phone driving a car, unless you have holder/stand (no idea how to name it in english) - and installation of it just for a trip, when you already have navigation is extra cost and time

[@Tonatsi]

​@@MaraMara89 You don't neeed data for google maps. It operates using GPS much like regular satnavs, all you have to do in advance is tell the application to download the maps of the region you're visiting so you have offline information. In the event you already have a satnav and its mounting mechanism, and do not have a mount for your phone, the satnav is likely more practical, but the accuracy of Google Maps is on par if not superior to what most reasonably priced satnavs sport. So, there's very little reason to buy a standalone satnav outside of diversifying.

[@jeff4362]

@@Shifftee Um... not everyone has access to mobile data when abroad

[@merlin2600]

Belgian here, your explanation was spot on. Charleroi has a pretty poor reputation. As a former coal mining and steel industry city, it was quite literally black and grim. It still has a lot of unemployment. It is however undergoing a strong transformation as you've seen in this video. So I agree with the advice to visit in a few years time.

[@bonecanoe86]

As someone who has spent a lot of time in the coal region of Pennsylvania, it's sadly interesting to see the similarities between Charleroi and places like Scranton. Hopefully someday Scranton will see the same kind of transformation!

[@TheJmsbrown]

@@bonecanoe86 Europe is short on land so regeneration will always come eventually.....

[@pizzablender]

@@TheJmsbrown Distances are also short, which helps as well. 45 minutes driving from Brussels, or 1 hour by train.

[@danieleyre8913]

It still seems unreal that that at least that Neuville station isn’t used given that it’s right next to those blocks of flats.

[@RedRingOfDead]

@Eric Darchis i really hope they will modernize the buildings already there. To keep some of the past alive. And maybe mix some modern into the region. I myself am from northern Netherlands (not north Holland, really fuck that province) and I tell you it can work great. You just need to attract the right crowd and companies to blast the building into 2026 (as I'm sure it would take for local politics to sort thier shit out and actually start). It looks like there is a lot of potential. Especially when metro 5 finally gets completed. Also they could attract modern companies . Of they fix thier internet rates and drop data caps. It would also attract just normal folk. (Not sure tho what Is P's still have home data caps, but here we would burn thier HQ's down for that kind of BS). But with everything up2date I can see good potential in the region. Even with the coal/steel past that's pretty shit. You also would need a good train station. And connection to parts where there is high quality schooling (international) something like the HSL (NS NL) I truly think it can work out great. But it will take time.

[@melaniealexis3491]

As a Belgian let's put it like this : "Everybody is in charge, but nobody is responsible" For exemple, during Covid early outbreak, we had 9 (NINE!) different Ministers of Health at the same time (due to belgian federalism), each of whom had a saying on Health matters. They were battling to know who had to decide. But there after, none of them was responsible for failures.

[@basswarnow]

That sounds so similar to Germany. During Covid, each of the 16 states had their own guidelines. That lead to a lot of confusion because regulation varied greatly - I remember in Berlin, you had to wear an FFP2 mask in buses and subways, but in the regional trains (which cross state lines) a medical mask was enough. Eventually the central government issued a new law (Infektionsschutzgesetz) in March 2022 which gave them more power to issue regulations, but the states are still responsible for exerting that power.

[@dec13666]

Did u say *NINE* 👀? Bro, and I thought that "our 5 health ministers might seem like a shame for 'developed' countries" 🤣🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️🤦... Regards from 😎🇪🇨🤙

[@paxundpeace9970]

@@basswarnow That wasn't the whole story. Actually we 17 health ministers. 1 Federal and 16 ministers of health for each state. Still depending on infection rates different rules were implemented depending on each city.

[@josephveksenfeld5344]

@@basswarnow You should have seen the US in 2020, where we had 50 states, each with different COVID regulations. Some went full in with masks and quarantines, while others denied that COVID even existed. Throw in a President who was advocating an anti-parasite medicine used to treat livestock as a panacea for COVID, a quack claiming that all diseases are due to people mating with the devil, and a portion of population predisposed to believe conspiracy theories, each one nuttier than the next, and the level of madness goes off the scale.

[@kaanerdem2822]

They flew to a meating abroad with 4 planes also...

[@byrondw1456]

I’m flemish and went to charleroi once and it was an absolutely surreal experience. It feels like a dystopian deserted theme park when you take the tram through the old mining structures. The city has a truly fantastical atmosphere.

[@nyls1717]

Well, that is if you think horrifyingly ugly, deserted, grey and poor is “fantastical”

[@Silence_stp]

Charleroi would be so good for a movie. A lot of potential

[@HerbeVerteee]

@@Silence_stp : Charleroi is really amazing for "drama" or "thriller" movie. For exemple, you got "LES CONVOYEURS ATTENDENT" with Benoit Poelvoorde, or "TUEURS" with Olivier Gourmet! Recently, the Rap Music clip "22" by NEKFEU was also shoot in Charleroi. Take a look and hit me with your feedback :-)

[@justacomment9136]

Onder DE brug daar is het altijd een show in die auto's. (Prostituees zitten daar i auto's)

[@pv325]

En nu hangt Charleroi net als bijna heel Wallonië aan een Vlaams uitkeringeninfuus, maar Nederlands spreken willen ze niet. Vlaanderen wees slim; dump Wallonië!

[@etatsopa]

Fun fact! There’s a place in Australia also called Charleroi, it was renamed after the Belgian city after Australian troops were stationed there following World War One and really enjoyed the hospitality. Charleroi, Australia has only 73 residents and does not have a metro.

[@andi_1425]

Sounds like they could move two or three metro stations from Charleroi(Belgium) there :P

[@kaanerdem2822]

Or might have one, should check it out

[@Chris-du7hi]

Interesting, I live close to a Charleroi in Pennsylvania, US. Looks like it was founded by Walloons in 1890 and now has a population of 4120. They also don't have a metro :)

[@conepictures]

We should start a crowdfunding campaign to give Charleroi, Australia it’s own Metro.

[@alalalus7692]

@@conepictures perhaps a single Subway would be more than enough

[@VincentPhil]

The story of the Liège metro is its own appaling absurdity: they did start digging, went as far as purchasing the trains, but the tunnels were not water proof. They had to be filled back up and thus the Liège Metro was stillborn. Belgium is a treasure trove of catastrophic policy mistakes.

[@tetraxis3011]

You should see the Mexico City metro, recently an overhead line collapsed and killed 20+ people

[@wardwyseur]

this isn't a belgium problem only d'oh, there are projects like this all over the world

[@duploman0003]

@@wardwyseur But in Europe Belgium has a monopoly on them lol.

[@hurricane31415]

Corruption and incompetence at their finest.

[@pieterveenders9793]

@@wardwyseur Absolutely true, but Belgium definitely is a special case because of the fact it's divided in 3 different language regions (Dutch, French, and German, although the German region is so tiny you can pretty much just ignore and only focus on the first 2), who absolutely seem to hate each other's guts and do their utmost best to make the other's life as difficult as possible, hence why nothing ever get's (succesfully) done in Belgium. Although as a Dutchman I understand the next bit my come across as very ignorant or even arrogant, but I seriously wonder if Belgium wouldn't just be better off being split up in 2 and having Flanders join the Netherlands while Wallonia joins France. Or option 2, disband the 3 different language regions and just create 1 single country so the whole country is forced to work together and (hopefully) no longer able to sabotage the other's projects and plans.

[@edward_4073]

A little update about the line in 2024, based on a recent visit. There's definitely a lot of work being done on the line, which does however mean that it's not possible to visit the abandoned stations, but its planned to be open by 2026, which is good. It's still worth visiting though, and there's a little bit of abandoned section of one of the other lines visible at Waterloo station.

[@XalphYT]

If I were a resident of Charleroi and I had to walk past those unused subway stops every day to work since the 1970s, my rage would be incandescent by 2022.

[@sugeknight3757]

That's my daily routine every f*cking days.

[@igrim4777]

I'd be mad too, mostly because after walking every day since the 70s I'd be at Belgian retirement age and after 50 years I think I would finally deserve at least one day off.

[@Ben31337l]

@@igrim4777 I bet that the delay would be into the years haha.

[@lzh4950]

Singapore also built some train stations that were opened only ~10 yrs later for various reasons e.g. Woodleigh was built in what was then mostly forest & a colombrium between 2 other stations that were rather far apart, together with other stations along the same line that were in more populated areas, probably as there'd be more economies of scale building more stations in 1 go rather than building 1 station on the same line much later than others. However ~20yrs later the forest is now replaced by public housing. On the other hand, construction of our fully-elevated Punggol LRT (which is more like an APM) continued as originally scheduled I think even as the town it served has its development delayed by the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. Perhaps to make up for lost time, after that the gov't concentrated much of the new house-building (public housing houses 85% of our population) in that town, & the stations eventually opened, except for 1 that'll probably open ~2030 when a new university campus is built beside it. A side effect of such concentration though is that some of our older towns now have a greying population as their families' children increasingly move to where the gov't has concentrated new housebuilding at, when they grow up. So some of thost towns' facilities e.g. Tg Pagar & Buona Vista public swimming pools have closed due to decreasing patronage.

[@zeveroarerules]

You'd have shot yourself by now, because you live in Charleroi... That metro line is the least of your problems.

[@levidelise7112]

Belgian person here! The moment you said "the short answer: it's belgian politics" I literally laughed out loud because that's so typical Belgium. Anyways, I think it's cool that your pronunciation of the cities and stations is pretty spot on! Most English speaking people sound very funny when they try to say 'Charleroi', but you nailed it!

[@jacyoutube4459]

did you enjoy his punchy "bonjour" to every stranger he met?

[@KougaJ7]

Imagine Brad Pitt saying Charleroi with his Inglorious Bastards accent.

[@xadosgang861]

I am so impressed as a foreigner (sorry maybe you have Belgian nationality) the research and the time investissement you have put in this video to show us more about Charleroi metro but also about Belgium in general. You did a amazing job, and as a Belgian, I just want to thanks you !

[@TheTimTraveller]

Thank you! That's lovely to hear :)

[@Mon5ieur]

yes but this line is unfortunataly in the worst city of belgium so this gives kind of a bad view of it

[@Prosauropodslovecake]

As a Belgian, your view of Flanders and Wallonia as squabling siblings is pretty spot on I think.

[@WolfJustWolf]

The divorsed couple still living together analogy is closer to the point.

[@Candisa]

@@WolfJustWolf Let me guess, flemish and leaning towards the nationalist-side of politics? Flanders and Wallonia are as close or separated as you want to see them. Sure, the waffle-iron-politics shouldn't come back and Wallonia didn't recover well from their industrial crisis, but they seem to have woken up while Flanders is falling asleep when it comes to going with the times and adapting to the future, and if Flanders doesn't wake up soon the coin will do a full 180 flip once again. The Flandern government is too busy saying Flanders funds the rest of Belgium and fighting the "left-wing" (not really) federal government to see Wallonia is catching up fast. The main problem is that 90% of the people don't even know which government decides what, let alone know what their vote truly means, they just pick a party that shouts what they think the loudest without doing any research, and vote for it on every level from city to Europe, resulting in barely workable governments that actually represent few people and taking decisions nobody actually wanted when they used the red pencil on a string. The truth is every single party, even the forever-opposition extremes, wants to keep the system as it is even if it means driving it into the ground as long as they are the ones being spared from the consequences. This is true in most of the world, it's just more extreme in a tiny country with 6 governments who can barely make any decisions by themselves...

[@PTB_BE]

The squabling siblings/divorced couple is a view nationalists like, the regular folks don't give a single fuck tbh

[@retro2103]

@@Candisa The transfer of money in and of itself isn't really a political talking point anymore, and even then, wealth transfers from wealthy Flemish cities also go to poorer Flemish areas such as Limburg. While this is very much a De Wever talking point, he is right when he says that Belgium currently has devolved so significantly that our national identity can be considered tenuous at best. I think the moment that really hammered that home is when we decided to devolve education to the communities. Either we grow back together, continue in this between state or take devolvement to its natural conclusion. Also, I'm not exactly sure how Wallonia is overtaking Flanders economically again. It's not as ruined as it was in the late 20th century sure, but Flanders got through the door of the information and service economy first, and has since comfortably nestled itself as the established go-to region in this country, the one that has the important harbours as well. With the exception of Walloon Brabant most of Wallonia's still not up to par with most of Flanders.

[@goqsane]

@@retro2103 I'm a Belgian national and I absolutely think that Belgium has been on a path to self-destruction for at least the last 10 years, tangibly. The lack of competition, bad quality of services and many other infrastructural problems is a ticking time bomb. Wonder what happens in the next couple of decades. : o )

[@MatthewGeier]

What is more 'fun' is that the local rail enthusiasts semi-regularly run train tours onto the unfinished branch where the tracks are complete. For 40 years those tracks have been maintained enough that trains CAN run on them. If you hunt around you can probably find pictures of these tours. I can only assume there is some legal reason the tracks have to be maintained.

[@stmisbehavin662]

If there's any chance of needing them in any sort of medium term, it's generally cheaper to maintain tracks with no use (or next-to-no use) than it is to tear them out and put them back in again.

[@greggv8]

@@stmisbehavin662 near the end of the 20th century some American railroads had double track on some routes where traffic had decreased to the point where they were only using one track. So when they added new single track other places, they removed the unused rails and moved them to the new lines. I assume they left some parts as sidings and put in switches so trains going opposite directions could pass, but that arrangement limits the length of some of the trains to the length of the shortest siding on a line. Scheduling trains based on their length and the length of sidings would get to be complicated. Couldn't have two trains come up to a siding where both are too long for it. But various factors lead to increasing traffic on some of the lines where they'd removed half the rails. So the railroads were whining about needing financial support to put *new* rail back onto the lines they'd taken it from. If they'd bought new rail for the new lines they would've saved money by not needing to buy more expensive rail to replace what they'd foolishly moved.

[@stmisbehavin662]

@@greggv8 American railroads had an extra incentive to single-ify their double track - they were taxed more for double track lines, and in that context it made better sense. I'm pretty sure this doesn't apply in Charleroi.

[@davidjones332]

@@greggv8 The Cambrian Railways regularly used to pass two trains on a single line using passing loops that were shorter than either train. It can be done, but it's a shunter's nightmare.

[@the_retag]

@@davidjones332 how. One train longer simple, but both?

[@olivierlaurent6921]

Being a Belgian with a part of my family from Charleroi, I was really surprised by the quality of your presentation. impressive. well done. I even learnt quite a lot of things.

[@maurice_walker]

Speaking of colossal wastes of money and horror stories: A few years from now, Tim standing next to an abandoned industrial site. "Hello and Guten Tag! It is spring 2029, and I'm in the city of Greifswald in northeastern Germany. And today we're exploring the 1234 km, 10 billion Euro pipeline that was fully completed but not opened. Fully completed but not opened? What's the story there? Where does this pipeline go? Well, ..."

[@hologram1211]

Sehr gut!

[@mctavishsoap3815]

Is it Nordstream 2 you’re talking about?

[@mikkolukas]

@@mctavishsoap3815 yes

[@wilhelmpfusch3699]

I allways wonder how they will speak in the future about the hunderts of thousand of "Verkehrsversuchen" in germany, where they spend million of Euros to change mostly fully operatable and good streets in bicycle friendly roads by reducing lanes. Which often ends in a big mess of traffic jams, frustrated people and no real jump forward for anyone.

[@68404]

Europe is desperately short of gas.. "Hi, we have a new pipeline that will solve the problem instantly." "No thanks, we like our industries shutting down and being cold in our apartments. Go away!" Stupid politicians

[@andreaspauls2472]

As an viewer from the german speaking part of belgium I for one am very happy you did not forget us :)

[@katrijndekeersmaecker1904]

Nice to meet you here my mysterious countryman! As a Flemish person, I have to admit finding your comment felt more like running accros a mythical figure than it should have 😅

[@kaanerdem2822]

İ hope your not the only one who has acces to internet.

[@AlexandervonBelow]

Grüße an die DG!

[@naylas3908]

We had tons of unused metro lines here in Antwerp, on the Flemish side of Belgium. Many people in the city were annoyed, since we literally had trams running through the streets above those lines, that could have run below the ground instead. In the last 10 years or so, the city has finally started using some of those subway lines. They finished the infrastructure and those trams now run underground in the city centre, after the tunnels lying unused for decades. My husband and I actually live in an area of the city that is now connected with 2 of those previously unused tunnels. When we moved out here 20 years ago, both trams going to this part of the city were still completely above the ground. Then, they finished the infrastructure on one line and started using it, and years later, they did the same with the other one. So they are above the ground in our part of the city, and then go underground as they enter the city centre. It’s a definite improvement, they’re much faster now.

[@patrikfagard6525]

This is one of the main reasons why Belgium is as complicated as it is today. It was not just ghost metro systems, but all kinds of useless infrastructure works like bridges and highways that would lead to nowhere. I believe there was a journalist at the time who would every year publish a journal keeping track of all the useless works that had been added to the list to make a point about how public money was being wasted. Another fine example is that one of those useless highways finally found a use recently to temporarily store all the waste from the massive flooding in Wallonia.

[@TomDupont]

You can see this show about the public funds being spoiled on youtube kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZouqnJmNmdh_gtk It was really famous when the show was broadcasted.

[@HansLasser]

Journalist was late Mr Defossé. It was a Sunday prime time part on the news called "Chronicles of the useless works". Always presented with a lot of humor.

[@anitramwaju]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZouqnJmNmdh_gtk

[@andr386]

Usually it's a good bet to invest in infrastructure. Back then it was Belgian workers who built that metro. And even though there were actually a lot of 'useless work' that are constantly highlighted. We also built and maintained a very huge road infratructure that is lit at night and can be seen from the moon. It also makes Belgium a very big transit hub in northern Europe.

[@nocomment4620]

"LES TRAVAUX INUTILES" Les vidéos de Jean-Claude Defossé sont sur le site "RTBF auvio".

[@cofeewarior]

Hello Tim ! I'm from Charleroi and you really summed up all the problems about that metro. I would point out that, for a numbers of years, the line 4 wasn't even completed in the 1990's. The last three stations opened in 2013, as well as the closure of the urban loop that all branches goes from. Before that, there was a gap between the metro station "sud" and the metro station "parc". The originals plans to close that loop in the 1990's was to build a bridge over the sambre and the city, cutting through a school (I assure you that was the plan, I went into that school as a student and they called that part of the building the "metro room"). It was scrapped because it would have costed over 3 billion belgian franks at the time (about 74 millions euros in todays money without inflation). Anyway, it was a great video, very instructive even for me. Ho and last bit, as you said, you shouldn't have been in that ghost station, it is forbiden to go in there by the TEC, the operator of the metro. They are used to the occasional visitor and they generaly ask politly, yet firmly, to leave the stations when you are caught

[@TheTimTraveller]

Ah thank you, it's always nice to get comments from people who are actually from the places I visit. And cheers for the extra details! Yeah I hesitated about what date I should give for Line 4... as I understand, it was completed as far as Gilly in the 90s, and put into operation, so that's the date I picked. But you're absolutely correct that technically it wasn't fully completed until 2013. Sometimes even a pedant like me is forced to skip over SOME details :)

[@cofeewarior]

@@TheTimTraveller Hahaha, I understand and it's no worry, you can't push all the details in videos but I'm glad that my humble contribution in the comments helps :) And you understood correctly, line 4 (at the time, line 54 and 55) was completed until Gilly in the 90's, the rest was left unfinished but the line went into operation anyway

[@simonlacorneille8822]

@@cofeewarior Gee, A student from IND :')

[@cofeewarior]

@@simonlacorneille8822 Indeed ;)

[@a-lxs8942]

@@TheTimTraveller You should make a video on their unfinished highways too.... good stuff there

[@estrellasew221]

"Carolo" here (how we call us, the citizen of Charleroi) : I quite never liked our metro/tram but in the same time seeing this video gave me nostalgia and made me laugh. I don't live in that town anymore but I always quite like it, the coal/desert/ghost urban vibe... And it's always fun to see it from a stranger perspective. Belgium is quite a strange country, but I will never trade it for an other one. We are like a dysfunctional family that loves each of us anyway haha

[@philipmerrin4858]

It sure is a strange country, if it wasn't officially a country then most would view it as two regions of somewhere else.

[@thenoob4705]

If you're looking for reasons as to why people would be upset with Waffle Iron Politics: in 1990, 4 years later than the completion of this line, Flanders had 5.74 million residents, and Wallonia 3.24 million (and Brussels 1.69 million). Meaning that for every four Walloon residents, there was SEVEN Flemish persons... And yet the money was supposed to be split exactly the same between them.

[@xander1052]

I mean, the idea as a whole was never a good solution, seeing as in the mid 20th century wallonia was wealthier than flanders and now the reverse is true, so it always would have disadvantaged one over the other.

[@Chloe-ch6mc]

@@xander1052 I get the idea, using funding from one to boost the other, but knowing the flemish walloon rivalry, this would never have worked

[@PatricioGarcia1973]

It is like my country Argentina, Buenos Aires has 15 million people, while other provinces have 4 million to less than 400 thousands. So it’s like 1 -4 residents other states to 15. And the smaller populated provinces have to contribute to the bigger one, for electricity, transport, gas, food, etc.

[@plumebrise408]

@@PatricioGarcia1973 When you said Buenos Aires ,I though about the Province of Buenos Aires ,not the agglomeration so I though "No ,it has 18 million people" ,then I looked up on Wikipedia and the agglomeration of Buenos Aires has a population of 15 Million people for 3 830km² while the province of Buenos Aires has 18 Million people on 307 571km² ,so 83.33% of the population of the province of Buenos Aires live on 1.25% of the superficie of Buenos Aires . 32.61% of the population of Argentina live on 0.14% of the superficie of Argentina

[@bcvanrijswijk]

Well, in 1830 the Flemish allowed themselves to be buggered by the Walloon industrialists and the clergy. They are still paying the price for that.

[@CheapCharlieChronicles]

This is fascinating. Belgium has so many cool, old cities and towns. Their architecture is second to none, a mix of the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution Era, a mix I love.

[@robin1987100]

lol

[@CheapCharlieChronicles]

@RealSweetKid I like the copious use of bricks too. Northern France has a lot of this style as well, especially areas like Artois which historically was part of the lowland Kingdoms.

[@skeven0]

@@CheapCharlieChronicles speaking of Artois (more the beer stuff) alot of breweries in belgium are older than the country itself,

[@forton615]

@RealSweetKid Each part of Europe had it's flavor of renaissance. Particularly the Flemish and Dutch painters of that era had a very typical style, like Breughel and, far ahead of his time, Hieronymus Bosch who was a surrealist, centuries before the word even was invented.

[@lordjace]

Belgium has many beautiful old cities, full of culture and great architecture. And it also has Charleroi.

[@w.k.7277]

Après avoir vécu en Belgique pendant un an, je suis devenu fan de tes vidéos et surtout celle ci. Well researched, well done!

[@QuantumHistorian]

This is a pretty standard story: when the money comes from elsewhere, it's easy to find ways to spend it; when it comes from your own pockets, you're a lot more careful with where it goes.

[@flitsertheo]

The building contractors just kept on building as long as the money kept flowing. They didn't care if their constructions would ever be used. Of course not everyone could participate in the spoils, you had to be "friends" with certain politicians and/or other influential people . Corruption at its worst.

[@cardenasr.2898]

That's almost the story of my city's metro system, whenever the national government opened its wallet, we could count on transit being built, when it was with our own budget, we pretty much built f'all

[@guintube]

I live in California. The liberal government has been building a very large and expensive high speed rail track which will eventually be abandoned because no one wants to ride the stupid thing.

[@kellydalstok8900]

@@guintube Because everyone prefers pollution and climate change to a comfortable ride and reading the paper or a book.

[@albertbatfinder5240]

@@guintube I was in San Francisco in the 80s. One set of acquaintances said exactly the same thing about BART. Another set thought it was great. It’s quite possible you belong to the former set, and no matter what happens you’ll stick to your car.

[@albericsaerens7803]

Actually Antwerp also has an unused line, however it is fully underground. Another line was build in the 1980’s and only opened in 2015 (now used by lines 8 and 10 but some stations remain unused)

[@lpt2606]

they are planning to open the unused line in a few years. i don't remember the date

[@liamtahaney713]

@@lpt2606 2024 I believe...it's apparently almost entirely operational, they just need to build stations (of which there I'll only be 2) and it's done

[@jeanjacques9980]

I sense video material?

[@erikpiussi2960]

@@liamtahaney713 morckhoven/joe english, drink and kerkstraat need to open i think. And then you have the unused metro tunnel under the Kerkstraat?

[@Robbedem]

I think Brussels also had/has unused underground lines? The end of the E19 to the Ring around Brussels is also clearly different then originally planned.

[@TheRealTricky]

As a Dutch living very close to the Belgian border (so I've visited Belgium (Flanders in particular) a lot), I've always been amazed with some things that are only possible due to the odd situation there between Flanders and Wallonia. But I never imagined it could lead to something like this.

[@dark_nightwing_xl2797]

You live in Brussels?

[@TheRealTricky]

@@dark_nightwing_xl2797 I think I made it clear I live in the Netherlands and Brussels lying in Belgium (even being the Belgian capital), I guess that would make it easy to guess the answer is "no".

[@jeff4362]

Does the wealth of Flanders and more poverty stricken Wallonia also shock you?

[@TheRealTricky]

@@jeff4362 "Shock" is the wrong word, but I've always known there's a huge gap between Flanders and Wallonia. And not exactly being rich myself (on the contrary) I'm not that easily shocked anymore. But I've always wondered about how it is possible. Now the situation between Northern and Southern Italy appears to be far more out of balance than the situation between Flanders and Wallonia and has always amazed me as well.

[@DrBovdin]

Visiting Charleroi is a dream for anyone wanting to visit the post-apocalypse… The airport used to give a creepy authoritarian vibe due to its anti-terrorism additional security point set up on the front entrance embarkation/disembarkation ramp. I never saw it without it, and I can only imagine what it has been like during the beer bug times. Joking aside, it’s not all that bad, but it could do with some freshening up.

[@zorktxandnand3774]

Not the dystopian future we want, but the dystopian future we got.

[@NopWorks]

Reminds me of the metro where I live. There are security checks at every station's entrance set-up like a temporary measure but it has never been removed. Even stations built just last year set them up like a temporary thing.

[@firefox3187]

Beer Bug Times?

[@SlackActionBumble]

I actually kind of enjoy giving a couple of hours to the sketchier/more decrepit parts of a country when I go visit, as a sort of anti-tourism to balance the touristy stuff I see. Like, when I visited Britain, I saw London and the Scottish Highlands, but then on the way down I randomly drove around Leeds for a while. So when I go to visit Belgium, I'm definitely going to swing through this depressing pit of a town. It definitely has Leeds / Cleveland vibes going on

[@DrBovdin]

@@SlackActionBumble I don’t know about Cleveland, but Leeds (if you mean the UK city) is definitely nicer than Charleroi… at least that was the situation five or so years ago. I haven’t been to Leeds for at least that long, and last time I was in Charleroi was before the pandemic.

[@lmlmd2714]

I feel the real bonus irony in the absurdity of the Charleroi metro is that when they finally finished the northern M3 line in the 2010s, it runs *almost* to the really busy airport (a load of low cost airlines use it as a cheaper alternative to Brussels), but *not quite*. Totally bonkers.

[@neovenom9833]

LOL probably the taxi unions lobbyed against that.

[@osasunaitor]

Oh man... I've used the airport quite a lot to visit my family in Gent and the trip from the terminal to the Charleroi Sud station on those crowded TEC bendy buses rallying at insane speeds through endless roundabouts for 20 minutes is by far the worst part of the whole journey. I could really use a metro for that trip...

[@Thom763]

@@osasunaitor hahahahaa

[@Splatpope]

well the closest station is like 100 meters away from the tip of the runway, but it's like 3km away from the terminal source : the planes go over my house

[@yalu2]

That airport is pretty much unreachable! :D :D

[@CapitaineMinuit]

You might want to the adress the 'Belgian City That Did Build A Metro Line' ran ancient trams through it for the best of twenty years and while they did build a tunnel crossing the river, and some nice stations, did practically no maintenance on the lines themselves. You can hear the walls crumbling as you ride through it. It's called Antwerp.

[@radagastwiz]

I'm reminded of Cincinnati, Ohio, which in 1920 built two miles of tunnels for what should have become a streetcar subway, but abandoned them before any track could be laid. Much of them still exist.

[@JeffreyJakucyk]

More than that, there was another 7-8 miles of completed surface right-of-way and stations to Norwood that were ready to go except for track, electrical systems, and rolling stock.

[@andyjay729]

If you could a 3-mile streetcar system as a "metro", then Cincinnati now has seven less metro lines than Charleroi was planned to have (and one more than Tampa Bay). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Bell_Connector PS: I learned via that article that the local exchange telephone carriers Hawaii of all places is run by the Cincinnati-based telecom company which was awarded the naming rights to Cincinnati's streetcar line. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Bell

[@PaulFisher]

Speaking of Cincinnati and mass transit, every time I want to get mad I just think about the twin MetroMoves (would have funded a huge transit expansion) and Stadium (public funds to pay for what would become one of the most expensive football stadiums at the time, for one of the worst teams in the league; poster child for egregious corporate welfare, like this is one of The examples of Why Stadium Deals Are Bad) sales tax ballot measures. Based on how we now have a stadium but not a real regional transit system, I leave it as an exercise to the reader for which one passed and which failed. (Happy 5/13 day!)

[@OhioCentralModeler]

@@andyjay729 The Bell Connector is sadly a failure, and it seems that the city has no real plans to expand the streetcar network in motion whatsoever. I was happy Cincinnati actually finished a transit for once, and still am, but the route was designed by idiot politicians and not competent transit engineers. It's main use is for moving tourists between landmarks than it is for anyone living in Cincy to get around to any place normal people go.

[@anthonybanchero3072]

Wonder if it could be finished today?

[@creepermk]

So happy about this Video, combining my passions of metros, underground stations, abandoned stations and your videos into one :D And the allotment joke and all the others are really on point

[@AllegedlyHuman]

Goodness gracious, your sense of humour is a delight. I don't have more than a passing interest in the topics, but your presentation of them is what really sells it for me

[@frglee]

Ah yes, 'Brussels South Airport'. One of a number of European airports used by budget airlines that are a very long way from the cities they are supposed to serve. Even to the point of the coach service to from the airport to the destination city taking longer than the flight itself (and can even be more expensive) Here's a list: 1. Paris Vatry Airport - 131 miles from Paris. 2. Oslo-Torp Airport - 73 miles from Oslo 3. Munich West Airport - 70 miles from Munich 4. Frankfurt (Hahn) - 68 miles from Frankfurt 5. London Oxford Airport - 61 miles from Central London 6. Stockholm (Skavsta) - 60 miles from central Stockholm 7. Barcelona (Girona) - 58 miles from central Barcelona 8. Barcelona (Reus) - 58 miles from central Barcelona 9. Paris (Beauvais ) - 54 miles from central Paris 10. Dusseldorf (Weeze) - 49 miles from central Dusseldorf 11. Robin Hood Airport - 41 miles from Nottingham 12. London (Stansted) - 40 miles from central London 13. Charleroi (Brussels South) 38 miles from central Brussel

[@alextaxi2593]

What about London Ashford right beside the seaside

[@VinsonMusic]

Lots of these in the US, too. The “Manchester-Boston Regional Airport” is in Manchester, NH, about 50 miles from Boston, and not connected with any meaningful public transit.

[@damiendye6623]

Robin hood airport has nothing to do with Nottingham. It's in the former Sherwood forest

[@Alexander_C69]

Robin Hood Airport is not supposed to serve Nottingham, its full name is Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield as it is intend to serve Doncaster and Sheffield. It is called Robin Hood Airport becasue it is 13 miles from the border of Sherwood Forest and the airbase that was converted into the airport for 59 of its 80 years of operation resided within Nottinghamshire.

[@johnturner4400]

@@damiendye6623 As someone from Nottingham, I can confirm that Robin Hood was a Yorkshireman….

[@justintaverniers4887]

Wow! Your video also explains why the "metro" in Antwerp got more funding than it should have in the 1970's. The funds they got from Ghent were also used to build more lines and stations than needed. Currently Antwerp has 7 abandoned partially build underground stations out of 19 in total, of which 4 are planned to finally open in 2024.

[@muncherofpizza]

They had a weird thing where, when I arrived at Central, the inside staircase was blocked and the outside one just led into what seemed like bicycle parking; but when I came back not even an hour later, the stairs were open and the escalators were running.

[@justintaverniers4887]

@@muncherofpizza Oh yes, this happens all the time. And escalators that only work once in a year or so :D

[@lauraknp]

I am from Brussels and it's the first time I see a video explaining so simply and effectively the complicated situation of Belgium :) so thank you haha !

[@JohnMulhall1]

All this time waiting to escape France to go exploring the world, and you end up in Belgium. Some very good exploring all the same. Thank you for making Belgium seem worth visiting.

[@leonardgibney2997]

I took a train journey through the Ardennes. Spectacular.

[@jeroenjanssen3941]

Belgium is worth visiting, especially the landscapes are very pretty

[@LLLemi]

Oh come on. Belgium is beautiful, just that Charleroi is not their prettiest jewel. Gent, Brugges, Leuven, Antwerp, Namur all are beautiful and modern. And the ardennes are incredible

[@lucasrem]

he is saying stay home, it's a construction zone...

[@cecilebraillie4471]

@@leonardgibney2997 video: shows the grimmest area of Belgium you: "thanks for making Belgium seem worth visiting" 🤣

[@benjaminsiebert1233]

If you ever come to Germany, in the region I grew up in is the old cannon railway. The mostly abandoned part of the Leinefelde-Treysa-Line is open to walk around on these days. On parts of that line you can also ride a handcar nowadays. Hit me up, if you want to visit. Lots of history on this line as well, should be right up your alley.

[@ypoora1]

Knowing the line is fully abandoned, i think it would be cool to walk down the tracks or maybe get a pump cart or something and ride down, taking the chance to explore ALL the stations.

[@AabhasLall]

I hope that during the revival process for the metro lines, they leave as much of the "Art" and also the overall design of the station equipment untouched as possible, or refurbish it without altering the 70's design aesthetics. That would make the metro lines a tourist attraction in itself.

[@ThisBeWe]

Don't worry, the open lines already carry those aesthetics.

[@blanco7726]

The grafiti will be taken off the floor, benches, doors and parts of the wall where things need to go up. For the rest of the walls, it’s a waste of money.

[@lucasrem]

@@blanco7726 or they sell them as art pieces! any famous tags?

[@watershed44]

@@blanco7726 Thank goodness gaffiti looks like shite, and smells of afreakans.

[@TheSultan1470]

No not the 70s

[@jamesdwebb]

As someone who worked for a Flanders based organisation until fairly recently, a very accurate description of the madness of Belgian politics!

[@chrispettersen1683]

My new favorite channel on KZbin!

[@bobsrailrelics]

"Is that an allotment?" 😆😆 I have seen so many images before of this line but never knew the story behind it. Thanks Tim, great as usual.

[@kettelbe]

I am from Charleroi and thank you for that vidéo ! Great content. For additional info, the end of the line is in Marketplace of Châtelet, and they did destroyed a lot of homes to allow the building of end line station. Never happened though lol. Thank you again!

[@mielv.9527]

As a belgian, I'm from the Flanders btw, I can say you that this is very nice work. Well done!

[@KogaInTheMoon]

I thought Madrid Metro, with stations almost finished, with final touches and everything, but no street access because the area was deserted at the time, or Barcelona, with a station completed but never opened due to miscalculations that made crossing the line tunnel directly with the one of another line did it bad. But seeing two stations with all the signage of a functioning station (Chet had even the entrance sign with its name, come on), made Spain look more efficient

[@ThatRomyKate]

Oh I don’t know, Spain has an entire airport that’s been abandoned after hardly any use!

[@el_es]

@@ThatRomyKate Berlin Brandenburg want a word

[@mikeblatzheim2797]

@@el_es Well, at least it's open and working now

[@MTobias]

@@mikeblatzheim2797 "working" is a strong word to use here.

[@petertaylor4980]

Valencia line 2: almost finished in 2011, but unopened because the water table was higher than they thought, and it flooded easily. There are photos of people kayaking in it. They finally opened it as line 10 a month ago.

[@DenHond]

Hope you'll cover some more Belgian stuff. The 'Ronquières inclined plane' should be totally up your alley, and could be paired up with the 'Channelbridge van Sart' (Kanaalbrug van Sart).

[@forton615]

And they were built for the same political reason as this metro network.

[@DenHond]

@@anyajenkins4611 Didn't know that one. I should visit these at some point :D

[@WolfJustWolf]

Belgian project are always comedy gold.

[@timbounds7190]

Ronquieres is amazing - like something from a 50s sci-fi movie!

[@hughjones4060]

@@timbounds7190 Been on a boat up the Strepy-Thieu lift and on one the old ones it replaced. Also visited the inclined plane and watched a barge come up it. It appeared to be full of top soil

[@brechdt]

A drone here would have been cool

[@Hollandstation]

As a Dutch person that loves making videos about transport infrastructure, This is really fascinating for me!

[@yagi3925]

Welkom in buurland België, welkom in Karelkoning (Charleroi 😆), waar nederlandstaligen thuis zijn!

[@wmarter15]

Well if you want to make a video where you have to explain a LOT of stuff that nobody gets, and the inhabitants are completely oblivious of it, you come to Belgium. Stay a while and look around for some ghost bridges, giant BOAT lifts, crazy lake-pumping powerplants and staggeringly random architecture. I always enjoy the outsider's view when they colourfully bring their wonder into words. Great video!

[@rogerwilco2]

Yes, all of Belgium is full of things like this.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

If Belgium split up, Homer Simpson would definitely join the Dutch military and invade Flanders, just to own Ned. The transition from the Goosebumps theme song to the Geography Now theme song is the chef's kiss. And I love the nudge at Tampa. You'd think governments over here would look at Europe and Asia and think "Wow, we need a reliable and spread-out transit system to serve the common people here" but nope, that's not how US politics work. And then there's New Jersey and New York, who'd buy the tracks so passenger trains would have priority over freight. Yes, NJ Transit, the LIRR, and Metro North aren't perfect, but it's better than having no public rail system what so ever.

[@thygate]

Belgian viewer here, you nailed it !

[@thatoneguy7191]

How do you keep finding such interesting things nobody ever talks about around here?! Love the channel :) (<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="231">3:51</a> Recognized that jingle from Geography Now xD)

[@isaacbobjork7053]

Such a lovely detail

[@williamwilliams7838]

Brilliant video, love the style and informative content and the tongue in cheek style! Keep doing them! Hugely enjoyable. 😊

[@SIMPYbe]

The explanation is very accurate. Perhaps interesting to mention: the investments also served the local economy (trams made by ACEC, steel supplied by the local steel industry), Charleroi had a well-known reputation as rail industry. In addition, Charleroi had a particularly large neighborhood tram network that had to be modernized (lines to La Louviere, Binche, Theux, Thuin, ...). It is a pity that the resources have not been used to modernize the existing tram network, but to realize a new network with far too high costs and operation (also because of politics, there were 2 "companies" at that time, the STIC (Charleroi city operator) and SNCV (state wide operator) with different opinions and interests...).

[@Robbedem]

and apparently from another comment, the trams of both those companies drove on the other side, so where they were supposed to move from one operator to the other, they made a crossover.

[@Croz89]

What Charleroi has ended up with is arguably pretty good for a city its size, a premetro that's underground in most of the city centre. There are much bigger cities in Europe with much worse mass transit infrastructure, they suffer more traffic congestion as a result. It's possible the tram system would have been too slow and congested to serve the growing suburbs adequately, many old tram systems in Europe were upgraded to premetro (or even full metro in some cases) for reasons like that. Would have been ideal to have both, but they only had the funds to do one.

[@jonni9545]

I can tell you that the renovation of all the trains and all of the signaling of all the tracks are going to start at the end of this year, how do I know that you ask ? Well, some of my collegues are working on precisely that, I work in the company that is contracted to do all of the renovation

[@sandervdbrink84]

Ah Charleroi, the least beautiful city in the world.

[@marvintpandroid2213]

Have you ever been to Hull?

[@pernille2389]

Slough is up there too

[@rin_etoware_2989]

honestly fitting for a place named after a guy whose contribution to history is "repeatedly baffling Christendom by continuing to live"

[@marvintpandroid2213]

Swindon and Newport South Wales must go on the list.

[@sandervdbrink84]

Ok @The Tim Traveller maybe it's time to poll for the least beautiful city in the world (or at least Europe)!

[@MaistrePathelin]

Thank you for this very informative video. I keep learning a lot about my own country thanks to you. Regarding your question about allotments, I don't think you saw one. As a Belgian, I only learnt about them in Britain. Truly, the concept baffled me. So no, I don't think we have allotments here.

[@Paul_Lucas]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="338">5:38</a> I am so here for the SimCity music!!

[@Mihyaeru82]

It's 'Broadway'. ☺

[@JimBones1990]

Nice to "see" you too, Paul.

[@k.r.baylor8825]

Well, it's good to hear that the town leaders are trying to finish this massive engineering project and make the best from their fathers' attempt to build this urban transpo system. What an eyesore for _30 years,_ but given the grotty look of the rest of this city, it probably wasn't that much of a standout. Great vid, Tim; I enjoyed watching your unique style of presentation once again. Awesome sauce all around.

[@mrcatman6374]

Half the city is abandoned coal mines / steel works with large earth hills piled everywhere in between from the mines.

[@troutouteuse68]

you even included the anthem of Charleroi ! That deserves a like ; )

[@stevenpurcell2337]

I’m impressed that you were able to sneak in the Geography Now piano riff before explaining the political geography of Belgium.

[@kabochaVA]

He did it in some other videos too... (it's time to watch some more Tim Traveler now 😉)

[@edwardlees4585]

Every time I've been to Belgium it always looks like a massive building site. You can see cranes and holes being dug everywhere you look. The only exception is Bruges where you can't see anything due to the fog.

[@Flutters_Shygal]

As a Belgian, yeah, sounds about right.

[@edwardlees4585]

@@Flutters_Shygal I'm glad I'm not alone!

[@jlust6660]

Some say we are born with a building brick in our stomach. So yes, if there's anything we love to do it's constructing and renovating buildings.

[@Thom763]

@@jlust6660 and it takes forever aswell

[@dieseldragon6756]

> The only exception is Bruges where you can’t see anything due to the fog. Swap „fog” for „rain”, and you’ve got an accurate description of most of England. The only exception is Basingstoke, which is so strange even the rain doesn’t touch it! 🙃

[@valentingallot2758]

As a Belgian living near Charleroi, I think you've understood the situation quite well. And also about that waffle-iron politics, there's an example that illustrates this perfectly. Just take a look at the map showed at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="240">4:00</a>, you see those two small areas that are both in the opposite side they belong to. So the one at the top left of the linguistic border is Comines and one upon a time, it belonged to Flanders, but most of the people there spoke French, so Wallonia asked if they could get this part back as most of the people there felt Waloon and not Vlaams, so Flanders accepted to give them this parted then gently asked "Can we get this other part that's on your side of the border but some people there speak dutch, please ". That other part on the bottom right of the linguistic border is Fourons and belongs now to Flanders. That's the perfect example of the waffle-iron politics. I also have to add that you've done a great work finding those stations, as a native from charleroi I was never able to find them even tought I looked everywhere.

[@abarette_]

not to mention the other half of Comines is literally in France for some reason lol

[@ricardor6388]

"Who won't be happy if I don't mention them" Tim, du kennst uns zu gut XD Vielen Dank für deine Videos ! Immer ein Vergnügen !!!

[@cat5636]

Wow, you guys really excist? 😉 love from Flanders!

[@rubenm.5161]

Wunderbar! Ich habe nach eine Deutsche Nachricht gesucht ^^

[@MikotheVynxen]

My maternal grandparents have been living not too far from one of those lines. When I was a kid my grandfather would regularily bring me along to explore the line. It was really creepy for me back then, and now seeing those images does bring back strong nostalgia. Cannot do that anymore today as it's one of the lines that has been opened since. Also feels weird to see images of places I'm familiar with, here on youtube, especially that retail park, that takes me waaay back...

[@tomrathmes1472]

As a Belgian from the Germanspeaking community, I appreciate you mentioning us. I was already getting prepared to rant haha! All the best!

[@unknownmf2599]

You're German not belgian

[@Mountain-Man-3000]

This is a FANTASTIC episode. Packed with info, but to the point. Thank you!

[@Alessandrol1989]

Very nice video. I will just some more explanation to why this part is still maintained today. In this 5th line there one of the two connection to provide electricity to the network. Since the other connection is at the extremity of the first line (Monument if I'm not wrong) they are maintaining this line in case of problem with the other entry point. Also you are mentioning that the extension will pass through the shopping center in reality the tunnel under it already exists (was planned in the original plan). For the "Chet" station the second time was the right way to pronounce it (This station was named this way because it is located in "rue Chet" or Chet street). For curious people we had in Belgium until 1990 a "secondary" train network (SNCV) that had a very dense tramway network. The extremity of line 1 (where line 2 does not go) is a remaining of this "old" network when it was possible though this line to reach La Louvière using this secondary network. There are some video on youtube filmed in 1990 at the end of SNCV line 90. If you look on youtube with "TEC Charleroi - Metro Leger de Charleroi - Centenaire - Waterloo" you can find some more recent video (2021) of tram going through this line 5. This is all the info I wanted to share.

[@freedomthroughspirit]

It's very rare when I hit "Subscribe" three minutes into a new-to-me channel's video. But your humor and general vibe had me clicking the button. 😁

[@ichbinein123]

That Sim City 3000 music at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="337">5:37</a>. I don't think I've heard that music in 15 years, but I recognized it instantly!

[@LouisOnAir]

Yes, I'm so glad you're covering this. I've been aware of the line for a little while because it's quite a big deal in the Urbex community

[@Stewnat7299]

These stations have a really cool style

[@csmlyly5736]

For those curious, at about <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="145">2:25</a> he says "is that an allotment?", I looked it up and it is a British term for a kind of community garden.

[@TheTimTraveller]

Fwiw, it's also a reference to [the last 2 minutes of] this series by Geoff Marshall: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqPHgmOZfMuln5I

[@FreshSalad645]

I remember going to Charleroi on my own when I was 17, I'm from Brussels. I couldn't find my way and someone told me "you need to take the metro and blablabla" so I spent 10 minutes looking for a metro entrance. You know, underground. Like, a metro. I didn't find it so I asked someone else who pointed to the tramway, and I was like "it's a tram" and he was like "it's the metro". I took it, and I still think it's a tramway or a "pre-metro" like in Brussels. If you like trains and tracks, you should visit the train museum in Treignes. In the summer time, the decommissioned train track are opened to run historical trains, it's called "le train des 3 vallées". I believe you can take the train to Mariembourg and catch the Historical train there. When the trains are not running, you can easily walk along the tracks and around the stations. The Treignes station is not a station anymore, it used to be a lodging and lab for scientific "expeditions" in the area. I believe it was sold a few years ago, I don't know what became of it. It's fun and family friendly :)

[@PolskiHusar117]

The city where my mother and grandparents come from (Pabianice in Poland) had one tram line along the main street trough the city center. The city council came up with the idea to ad a second tram line trough the suburbs where most people lived in apartment buildings and new apartments buildings where being build. The first part of the tracks was placed on an intersection and the sidewalk next to it. Then the communist government collapsed, the cities textile industry collapsed and the plans where postponed/abandon. All that remained was 10-20 meters of train tracks. Unfortunately when they repaved the road surface on the intersection they removed the tracks. I still hope that maybe one day, they will actually be able to make the second tram line.

[@aleksandralis9134]

Łódź here

[@nicolasdeltedesco7520]

I don't know if it still the case now but when I was a kid in the 90's the signaling was always on despite having no metro running on the line. My grandma lives near the Pensée station and my dad worked at the logistic facility where you can see the beer crates below the metro bridge around the <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="150">2:30</a> mark. For Chet; the T is silent:

[@Frespic]

C'est génial, je suis Carolo. Je connaissais déjà l'histoire et les stations abandonnées. Certaines sont juste à coté de chez moi. Mais, quel plaisir d'avoir un point de vue étranger :) Bonne continuation, et revenez quand vous voulez en Belgique !

[@Neo_Tenko]

"It's like something from a horror story, if it was a horror story written by an accountant" Chef's kiss

[@Kachkeis97]

There is a similar case in Luxembourg. Under the Airport in Luxembourg City there is a fully built underground train station that will never be opened, it was fully completed, everything was wired up, even the screens for arrivals and depatures were working already. But it was never connected to the track grid and the station (fully built) was filled in, as it‘s not needed

[@qjtvaddict]

Umm they can’t use it for HSR?

[@Kachkeis97]

@@qjtvaddict there is no real HSR in Luxembourg. The TGV does drive to Luxembourg City but as soon as it enters the country it can't drive at full speed anymore. And Thalys and ICE don't drive to Luxembourg at all. There is a Tram that is going to drive to the Airport in the near future, but it's going to have a new Station build outside infront of the Airport istead of driving underground to the finished Station.

[@borusa32]

That is super,thanks. I watched your earlier video on this amazing vehicle and never imagined you would actually be able to see this grand old lady .The restoration by the dedicated enthusiasts is an extra bonus and good luck to the team.

[@slavenbosnjak1404]

Great video ! Charleroi even developed a kinf of urbex tourism focused on its brownfields and inudustrial past, nice way to shed light on its patrimony and not be ashamed of its past like it's too often the case ! Btw, the line ends with a tunnel leading to an underground station situated under the shopping centre "Cora". Cheers !

[@Yvolve]

I hope they keep some of the original 70's architecture, because some of these stations are awesome! It would be very good for Charlerois to have a larger metro network, especially if it connects to the airport, as it would make the city much more attractive to work in. Belgian roads aren't that great, so taking a metro would be a hell of a lot faster in the majority of cases.

[@gustavsturksteinwall4027]

I just found out that he does all the music himself. If so, that’s really impressive. Great job man! It really adds a lot to the video!

[@RobinLilfelt]

That piano music in the background is stunning. Especially loved that rendition of the Simcity 3000 Theme music. Great job!

[@csorfab]

Glad I'm not the only one that noticed. Love that Simcity 3000 theme so much!

[@cat5636]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="286">4:46</a> no, that's the exact explanation. About the Antwerp metro, it's not a metro but a premetro, meaning there are trams riding through it and eventually (more like never) it will be converted to an actual metrosystem. There are also parts that were never completed first, but are now openend. However, there are still some unused parts but the city has plans to open those as well.

[@Quark0611]

But, unlike Charleroi, MIVA built side platforms. So trams can run on the right side.

[@suikasuika4157]

You showed so much place I go so often without even knowing this! This is incredible

[@morningstar8187]

As a Belgian, the most surprising thing about this for me is that you went about Charleroi with a camera and didn’t get robbed. 😂

[@SonicRealmGaming]

That's what you think, but he cames back only with the memory card 😂

[@medusa66.]

I guess that was supposed to be funny. Charleroi is a city and as such it’s not more dangerous than Liège, Brussels or even Paris. It’s time to stop bashing Charleroi.

[@tudor9218]

@@medusa66. nah, Charleroi is shite.

[@Wagslow7]

@@medusa66. l'humour :D

[@loicjonet4848]

@@medusa66. Charleroi is a horrible place, full of weirdos, crime and drugs. It's a sore on the face of Wallonia and that's saying a lot. Decades of socialist corruption and mismanagement, the absolute huglyness of the city, everything makes it a national laughing stock. The only reason Belgians from other Areas go to Charleroi is to leave it via the airport.

[@Ontariosaurus]

Lovely video, we're just getting our train line installed and running in Ottawa so it fun to see other places also waffling about :D

[@JohnLeeming23]

Be glad you've got a metro! Leeds, UK, has a population twice that of Charleroi, yet abandoned its extensive tram system in the 1950s. Plans for a modern light rail system have popped up from time to time during tha past 60 years, but have not yet materialised.

[@largeroliker]

Maybe you should also visit the southern Spain. We got quite some new tram lines in Andalusia and a couple of them (Velez-Málaga and Jaén) were completed... and never opened. Others, like Málaga, are about to be completed almost 16 years after they started...

[@eljanrimsa5843]

Time to visit Malaga! Now if they only would build the last bit of train line along the coast, I wouldn't have to go through Paris and Madrid when I come from Switzerland.

[@jacquesmertens3369]

Greetings from Belgium and thanks for the very accurate explanation. Impressive ! You did not mention that the remainder of the money went to the mafia, but I suppose you can't tell without finding a horse head in your bed.

[@Kyle-il9ye]

Great video and explanation of how complicated Belgium is.

[@PlanesTrainsEverything]

Such a well-timed video. I'm off to Charleroi in five days, not to use the airport as a launching pad off to Brussels or another part of Belgium, but to explore Charleroi itself. 👍

[@ExZeMIP]

Charleroi literally one of the worst Belgian cities, why in hell would you wanna take a vacation there

[@KestrelTown]

First Goussainville, now the Charleroi Metro. Keep this abandoned exploration up, and Tim could be one of The Proper People someday!

[@lucidaxe]

Thank you, Tim. You've been very kind, polite and informative about a country that as a citizen, I sometimes love and sometimes hate to live in. For all the bad things you can say about Belgium, I'm glad you see something of interest in its endless stories.

[@geerd1]

Well, being a so called Belgian, I can say you explained very well what kind of hallucinating piece of Europe this is…

[@cakemartyr5794]

Great story Tim, as ever. Another project that never got completed in Belgium was meant to be an express motorway between Brussels and Antwerp, the two largest cities. If my memory serves me correctly, there's a huge amount of space between the respective carriageways of the existing motorway. This was where there was meant to be a no-junction motorway between the two cities to speed things up for those drivers that didn't need to get on or off in-between. I hope this is still accurate as I haven't been to Belgium in a while.

[@ixlnxs]

There was indeed, but the space has been filled up by the high-speed railway line since then. Which gave the Antwerp-Brussels route its FOURTH railway connection, after the regular fast route via Mechelen, that most people use, the route via Mortsel, Mechelen and Vilvoorde, for commuters, and the slow route via every little village - I can recommend Eppegem and Weerde, just bring along your bike on the train.

[@cakemartyr5794]

@@ixlnxs Thanks for bringing me up to date!

[@Chloe-ch6mc]

@@ixlnxs the S1! I use that train to commute to my uni in the middle of nowhere, maybe you even know which one i mean

[@ixlnxs]

@@Chloe-ch6mc Between Antwerp and Brussels I have no idea. I do know LLN and I actually like that place.

[@thegearknob7161]

The link between the two is fine as it is. The biggest problem with Belgian motorways is just Antwerp itself. It's the only real bottleneck between Calais and the Netherlands. I get stuck there every time I pass it.

[@y-yyy]

Wow, the shots of this city challenged quite a few stereotypes that I had about Belgium! I was under the impression that it was a rich country where every street is perfectly manicured and everything is well-planned. This definitely has opened my mind. Fascinating city!

[@kionake1]

Thats just wallonia

[@JimmyTheTurtle892]

It's not like this everywhere, but there are indeed still quite a few cities or neighbourhoods of cities that are simply poor, and due to the collapse of heavy industry (steel industry, coal mining...), most of those genuinely poor parts can be found in Wallonia, because that's where those industries were most dominant without alternatives (Flanders has a much more varied economy, if one sector goes down, there are alternatives). Examples are Charleroi and Verviers. The situation actually used to be the other way around. Before WWII, Flanders was mostly just a rural hole (though there was quite a large textile industry in Ghent), while Wallonia was the economic centre with its heavy industry (actually, Belgium was the first country in continental Europe to experience the Industrial Revolution and was throughout the 19th century and early 20th century the third most industrialized countries in the world). After WWII, however, the steel and coal mining industries collapsed in Wallonia while the chemical and petroleum industries grew immensely in Ghent and Antwerp, and a hospitality sector arose in Flanders, and now the roles have reversed. This has some consequences politically as well. There has of course always been a linguistic and cultural divide that caused seperatist sentiments in Flanders, but now there's also the added frustration of tax money flowing from richer Flanders to poorer Wallonia (as is the case in most countries e.g. USA, East vs West Germany, northern vs southern Italy etc. etc.)

[@y-yyy]

@@JimmyTheTurtle892 Fascinating stuff, thanks for explaining the background of it!

[@dundee6402]

Usually the Flemish cities in the North like Ghent and Bruges, and some Walloon cities like Namur are very clean and pretty. Charleroi just happens to be the Detroit of Belgium: an impoverished industrial city that has seen much better days.

[@JimmyTheTurtle892]

@@dundee6402 Very much so. Great comparison indeed.

[@markeschen]

Now I'm looking forward to your video on the 2026 opening of Charleroi new metro line (which probably won't happen until 2030 at the earliest).

[@GuyChapman]

The Belgian-stylee jazz. Nice. When I worked for a firm with offices in Mechelen, all business meetings were held in English, because the Flemings refused to speak French and the Walloons, as a point of stubborn pride, refuse to admit they could understand a word of Flemish. I always think of Charleroi as being twinned with Dudley. It probably isn't, but it's the same vibe.

[@dennisengelen2517]

If some French speaker talks French to me then I respond in Dutch. And if they ask ''Français?'' then I respond: "Nee, Vlaams begod!". These French speakers have abused the Dutch speakers long enough when they had all the power and money and everyone had to speak their stupid language and now are salty that they are a developing region compared to the wealthy Flanders and their language which once was forcefed amongst Dutch speakers is the only pride they have left now. They should be happy that we don't force them to speak Dutch, Flanders is being too nice to those asshats who treated us as their bitches back in the day.